Rising and Setting
by digimichael96
Summary: "What's the difference between a rising and setting sun anyway?" Sora asked curiously as he stared at the beautiful sunset. "Well, I suppose it all depends on your perspective. One person's sunrise is someone else's sunset after all. It just varies based on the way you're looking at it," Kairi answered thoughtfully. "Well," mused Sora, "Then, this must be one, beautiful sunrise..."
1. First Day of School

**A/N: Hey, guys. I like to write... A lot... So, this is happening. Sorry. Not really. If you're coming from my other story "Not So Simple", welcome back! This one is gonna have a lighter tone than that one. If you're new, check out my other story! Sora's a cop, Kairi's a singer, it's a fun time... Thanks! Oh, and please leave a Review. I would very, very, very much appreciate it. Now, without further adieu... **

**Rising and Setting**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters presented in this work of fiction. They are owned by Disney, Square Enix and other affiliated groups and franchises. In addition, any songs that appear in this story are owned by their respective artists. Thank you.**

* * *

The morning started out as any other. The sun rose gently over the horizon and cast a shimmering glow over the waves. The sound of said waves hitting the shore was rhythmic and created a natural ambiance of relaxation throughout the island. Early birds and insomniacs alike drifted through the streets looking for a purpose. And on a house overlooking the water, a boy lay sleeping peacefully in his bed.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"AH! What?! Who?! Where?! Oof!" Or not... Sora Fair awoke with a start and flailed his way out of bed. He hit the ground with a thud. "Ugh..."

"Sora! Are you okay, honey?" The voice of woman, Sora's mother, sounded from down the hall. It was a small one-story house, so everyone could pretty much hear everything.

"I'm fine..." Sora reached up and turned off his alarm. He grunted with effort as he pulled himself off the ground. He groggily made his way to the bathroom and started getting ready, "Are you working an early shift today, Mom?" Sora's mother worked as a nurse at the local hospital. She was a very caring woman who worked hard to help put food on the table.

"Yes. Your father is sleeping in today, so he won't be able to drive you to school," Sora's mother poked her head into the bathroom to see Sora brushing his teeth, "You'll probably be home before me, so would you mind fixing dinner for tonight?" Aerith Fair was a beautiful woman with long brown hair. It was currently tied back with a pink ribbon that matched her pink scrubs perfectly.

Sora's shoulders slouched in disappointment, "Why can't Dad cook?"

Aerith merely chuckled, "You know what happens when your father tries to cook."

Sora pouted, "Fine... But he's cleaning up afterward..."

She chuckled again, "Fair enough." She checked her watch, "I have to go..." She kissed Sora on the cheek, "Have a good day at school!" And then she was gone.

Sora sighed, "Well... This is gonna be fun..." He was thinking out loud. He looked at his reflection in the mirror to evaluate the damage sleep had done to his face and hair. Beside the fact that half his spiky brown hair was flattened from sleeping on one side, he looked fairly normal. His hair was gravity defying with its spikiness and his deep, blue eyes matched the hue of the sky on sunny day perfectly. He finished getting ready and returned to his bedroom. He checked the clock, 7:32. "Crap!" School started in a half hour and he wasn't even dressed yet. Where did the time go? Sora threw on a pair of tan, cargo shorts and a white polo and was out the door. He didn't even have time to eat! He would have to start waking up earlier.

He was walking down the street of his neighborhood when he heard a shout from behind him, "Yo, Sora! Wait up!"

Sora spun to see his best friend, Riku Masamune, jogging towards him. Sora smirked, "Slept in, too, huh?"

Riku reached him without breaking a sweat and nodded, "Yeah. I spent the night texting Selphie, if you know what I mean..." Riku winked. Sora just rolled his eyes. Riku was not only on the High School Football Team, he was a class A ladies' man. With his long silver hair reaching his upper back and his icy, blue eyes, it was no wonder why the girls thought he was attractive. He wore a black, sleeveless shirt with white, basketball shorts. It made him look very sporty, but he was, so no one questioned it.

"I thought you were 'texting' Rikku..?" Sora didn't care much to pay attention to Riku's most recent "toy". He just resigned himself to being the wall at which Riku would talk about them.

"Yeah... But it just got weird, you know? We have the same name... It just felt like I was talking to myself all the time," Riku reasoned.

"And God knows two Riku's would be the worst thing that could ever happen to this world," joked Sora.

Riku shot him a glare, "Well, at least the ladies like me..."

Sora shrugged, "I'm not really interested in that right now."

Riku rolled his eyes, "Yeah... I'm not buying it. I'm thinking that you either A. Like someone and won't tell me about it, B. Are gay and haven't told me yet or C. All of the above with the person you like being me, of course." Riku winked again as he laughed.

Sora sighed, "Trust me, Riku, if I swung that way, and I don't by the way, you would definitely not be my type."

Riku feigned offense, "And what's that supposed to mean? I'm not good enough for you?!"

Sora just laughed, "If this bothers you as much as you let on, I'm thinking that I may not be the gay one here..."

Riku laughed along, "You caught me, Sora. I'm gay for you." They continued to joke and laugh as they made their way to school.

Finally, the school came within their field of vision: Destiny Island High School, or DIHS. Sora groaned, "You think this year is gonna be as bad as last year?"

Riku raised an eyebrow, "I didn't think freshman year was _that_ bad."

"Well, you also didn't nearly fail all of your classes," Sora reasoned.

Riku thought about this for a moment, "Well, if you're so worried about grades, why don't you just get a tutor. Sign ups start today. You just gotta go to the main office."

Sora nodded thoughtfully, "Maybe I will..."

* * *

Roxas had gotten to school early like usual. He hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the previous night. Ever since his best friend, Axel, had gone off to college the previous year, Roxas had felt very alone. He didn't think he'd ever make another friend as great as Axel.

Roxas sat alone in the art room. Even the teacher wasn't there yet. He'd taken it as a free credit because he didn't want to actually work first thing in the morning. Hopefully, he'd just be able to sleep through the class and no one would bother him. He rested his head on the table and closed his eyes. Seemingly no time passed when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He didn't look up, "Go away..."

"I'm sorry..." The voice was gentle and sweet. It was a girl, definitely, but not one he'd ever come in contact with before. "It's just that I thought you'd want to know that since it's the first day, we're supposed to report to our homerooms, not our first period..."

Roxas lifted his head to properly respond to source of the voice, but his words were caught in his throat. It was, in fact, a girl. There was no mistaking that. She had long blonde hair that rested gently on her shoulders and sparkling blue eyes. The eyes were filled with worry and a tinge of fear though probably as a result of Roxas's crude response to her initial prodding.

She looked absolutely stunning in her outfit. It was simple consisting of nothing more than white tank top that was covered by a light blue hoodie and dark blue, skinny jeans. The hoodie was zipped up most of the way and the outfit altogether hugged her petite figure nicely and complimented her slight curves. In her left hand, which rested at her side was what looked like a notebook, or a sketchpad and she had a small, white backpack slung over her shoulder.

Roxas shook himself out of his daze and cleared his throat, "Uh... Thanks... Sorry about what I said. I was, uh..."

The girl merely smiled sweetly, "Don't worry about it. It's early and you were probably just a little grumpy from being woken up."

Roxas just nodded, "Y-yeah. Thanks... Uh, but if I may ask... If we're supposed to go to our homerooms, why are _you_ here?"

The girl looked a little surprised by the question, but her smile quickly returned, "Oh... Well, I wanted to talk to the teacher about something but he doesn't appear to be here. I just happened to stumble upon you and thought it would be a good idea to wake you up." She giggled slightly. He had looked so innocent while he slept. She had to admit that it was pretty cute.

Even now, when he was awake, he was still attractive. He had spiky, blonde hair and light, blue eyes that seemed to see right through her. He wore a short-sleeved, gray button-down and blue, denim shorts. He had the top button unbuttoned which gave him a look of nonchalance that complimented his unruly hair nicely. Naminé wondered if his hair was like that because he'd just woken up or if it was always like that.

"My name is Naminé," she stuck her hand out formally to the boy as she continued to smile. She had been a little wary of him when he had been so rude to her, but he appeared to be remorseful and he clearly wasn't always like that. Maybe they could be friends. Naminé wasn't usually so forward with people, but something about this boy just made her feel more at ease with herself.

The boy gave a half-smile and grabbed her hand, "Roxas..." He quickly released her hand as he looked away suddenly, "Uh... Thanks again for waking me. I should probably get to homeroom now..." He rose from the chair and bolted from the room.

Roxas shook his head as he struggled to figure out his feelings towards the girl. Who was this Naminé and why did he feel so nervous around her? Was it because he thought that she was attractive? No... He thought plenty of girls were attractive. So, what was it?

Meanwhile, Naminé stood in mild shock. He had been so friendly in one moment and then suddenly he was running away from her. Had she done something wrong? Was he just shy like she was? She pursed her lips, "Well, I'm gonna have to talk to him again and find out, now won't I?"

* * *

Sora had separated from Riku when he realized they'd be going to their homerooms. Riku's last name started with an "M", so there was no way he'd be in the same homeroom as Sora, whose last name started with "F". Sora pulled out his schedule as he walked, "Room 166..." He started on his way to the room. He'd figured out the layout of the school in his first year, so now he could get pretty much anywhere without thinking about it.

On his way, he passed the main office and decided he should check out that tutoring program. He made his way over and entered the office. It was very formal looking with paintings and motivational quotes framed all around the walls. He approached the front desk and waited for someone to notice him. A woman sitting at a computer behind the desk glanced up, "Can I help you?"

Sora put on a smile, "Hi. Yes... I'm, uh, looking for a way to sign up for tutoring..?"

The woman looked a little surprised, but she smiled at Sora, "It's a little early for someone to be looking for tutoring."

"Yeah. I know..." Sora rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "It's just that I didn't do so well in classes last year and I'd like to improve is all."

The woman smiled and nodded, "Well, that should be no problem at all. Let me just print up a sign up sheet for you and you can fill out the information required."

Sora nodded, "Thanks!" He waited patiently while the woman typed something in and clicked a couple times on her mouse. Then, she stood and walked over the printer which was printing out a form. She grabbed it and placed it on the desk in from of Sora.

"Just fill this out and place it in that container when you're done." She indicated a small black box that read "Requests".

Sora smiled, "Got it." He grabbed a pen from another little receptacle and began to fill out the form. It was all standard information: Name, Grade, Class(es) in which tutoring will be required. When Sora finished he placed it in the request container, thanked the woman again and headed for the door. Well, that's done. He opened the door and heard a small yelp of surprise from the other side. It was quickly followed by a series of thuds as various items hit the ground.

Sora quickly stepped outside to see that there was a girl on the floor surrounded by books and papers. She had crimson hair that was pulled back into a ponytail and glasses covering bluish, violet eyes. She was wearing long-sleeve, white blouse and blue skirt. She looked very studious, but she also looked pretty cute. Sora wouldn't admit that though. In even thinking it, he was giving Riku clearance to tease him relentlessly until death.

"I am _so_sorry." Sora quickly started picking up all the girl's things as she did the same. He offered to help her up, but she stood on her own and dusted herself off. "Here you go." Sora tried to smile as he handed over the rest of her things, but she just avoided his gaze and accepted them quietly. She muttered a slight "thank you" and walked away briskly.

Sora stood confused for a few moments before the warning bell rang. "Shit!" He rushed the rest of the way to homeroom and walked through the door just as the final bell went off. Sora collapsed into a random chair and glanced around. Same people as last year... Sora sighed. He'd secretly hoped that the girl he'd bumped into would be in his homeroom. He didn't like her or anything he was just looking for an explanation as to why she'd rushed away.

* * *

Kairi made it to homeroom with plenty of time. Bumping into that boy had set her back a minute or two, so she hadn't made it before the warning bell like she'd liked to, but that was fine. Thinking back to the moment, Kairi hid her face in shame. She totally lost her cool there. Normally she would have scolded that guy for being so careless, but he'd surprised her. Not only had he stopped to help her, but he was... Well, he was quite attractive. She almost got lost in his sky blue eyes, but she managed to collect her things and escape the situation before things got even more awkward. Hopefully, she wouldn't run into him again because he just had the strangest effect on her.

Ever since Kairi moved to the Destiny Islands from her home in Radiant Garden at the end of last year, she hadn't really met anyone. Well, except for her best friend, Naminé. Besides her though, Kairi had kept to herself. She couldn't afford to distract herself with friends. She had to focus on her schoolwork. The final bell rang and Kairi turned her attention to the front of the classroom.

This would be one hell of a year...

* * *

**A/N: Let me know what you guys think! Feedback and Reviews really help me become a better writer, so please if you can, just drop a review. I'll try and keep these Author's Notes to a minimum as I did with my last story, so don't be surprised if you don't really hear much from me in the next few chapters. Anyway, thanks for reading! See ya!**


	2. Day at the Beach

The first week back to school passed very uneventfully. It was all syllabi and rule clarification. Not even tutoring would begin until the second week of school. Sora didn't see any sign of that red head over the course of the week either. So, with no work to be done and nothing to prepare for, Sora decided to relax for the entire weekend.

Riku, of course, was right on board with this plan, "To the beach, my goofy companion!" Riku pointed off into the horizon with the tip of a wooden sword. He was wearing a pair of white swimming trunks with blue stripes running up the sides. Sora was wearing a pair of black trunks with gold stripes running up the sides. Both the boys were already shirtless. Whereas Riku had an impressive build and well trimmed body in terms of both muscles and auxiliary hair, Sora had an average build and hair on his chest and running down his stomach.

Sora laughed, "How am I the goofy one when you're the one standing on the hood of a car with a pretend sword?"

Riku shrugged as he leaped off the car casually, "I'm just trying to make a point." He kept the sword in his hand and raised an eyebrow at Sora, "Where's yours?"

Sora looked wistfully off into the distance, "Don't you think we're getting a little old to have pretend sword fights on the beach?"

Riku looked shocked, "What are you-" He was silenced as a wooden blade came in contact with his face and sent him to the ground.

"Just kidding!" Sora laughed as Riku glared at him from the ground. In Sora's hand was his own wooden sword. He'd been hiding it behind his back just so he could do that.

Riku stood to his full height, "Bad move, Fair..."

Sora just chuckled, "That tall, dark and scary thing might convince girls that you're a "bad boy", but it has no effect on me..."

Riku narrowed his eyes at Sora, "Oh, yeah?" He smirked, "Well, how does _this_ affect you?" Riku swung his blade at Sora who quickly jumped back out of range.

"Save it for the beach, Riku..." Sora smiled, "Let's go... I'll race ya!" Sora began to run off in the direction of the beach.

Riku smiled at Sora's retreating figure, "You're on!" And he too took off at full sprint to catch up with his friend.

* * *

Kairi watched this scene play out through her bedroom window. What were the odds that this boy happened to live across the street from her. To make things even more ridiculous, she hadn't even noticed until now. Who was he? And why did he make her feel so flustered and nervous?

She couldn't deny that he was cute, but so what? Cute guys were usually either meatheads or total jerks. They never had this effect on her. This boy couldn't have been any different. He ran around with a wooden sword and partook in meaningless little competitions with his best friend. Considering the fact that he'd also just knocked her flat on her butt, he was probably both a meathead and a jerk.

But, he'd been nice, too... He'd helped her pick up all her things. He'd even seemed remorseful for knocking her down in the first place. And he was cute... No! Stop it, Kairi. You can't let anything distract you. Not now... Not ever.

She returned her attention to her agenda. The school provided one, but Kairi had her own. The school's just wasn't spacious enough. She filled her agenda with the essential dates, times and assignments: homework, schoolwork, projects, test days, quiz days, possible pop quiz days, club meetings, study sessions for each test, quiz and possible pop quiz and, of course, a break once a week/month depending. She didn't want to do too much, right?

Yes, Kairi was just the most efficient little academic. She had to be. If she ever wanted to follow in her parents' footsteps, she just had to get the best grades possible. She had to be the best in her class. She had to get into the best college. Then, she could get the best job. And everything would be perfect... It just _had_ to be...

Still, part of her wanted to relax once in a while. Spend time with friends, maybe. And that's what she had Naminé for. Naminé was just as focused, if not more, on her art, so she didn't mind at all if Kairi disappeared for a while to work on school stuff. Every so often though, Kairi would give Naminé a call and they would hangout. They didn't do much. Just talked mostly, but it was still nice. Sure as hell beat being alone. Like she was now...

Both of her parents were working. They were both lawyers in a really successful firm located in Radiant Garden. When the firm decided to create a branch in the Destiny Islands, her parents had been the first to sign up. They had enough money to easily afford a home in the area and they thought it would be good for the family to leave the hustle and bustle of city life.

Still, even with the new environment they were always working. She didn't blame them. They did it all to support her and she was grateful for that. She just wished sometimes that she could actually spend time with her parents or just _see_ them for that matter. Kairi couldn't remember the last time she and her parents were in the same room together for more than a few seconds.

She sighed, "Get over yourself, Kairi. Work is just important. The most important thing there is..." Kairi glanced out the window again. The sun was high in the sky. She couldn't tell if it was still rising or if it had already passed it's peak. She hoped it was still on the rise. She couldn't afford to waste her time.

* * *

"Say it!" Riku stood victoriously on the sand as Sora walked the rest of the way.

Sora was desperately out of breath, but he managed to say, "I'm... your bitch..."

"You know it!" Riku laughed jubilantly. He wasn't even remotely out of breath. Stupid Riku and his athleticism...

Sora collapsed at Riku's feet and lay on his back, "You know... This whole 'I'm your bitch' thing is gonna bite you in the ass one day."

Riku just smirked, "Doubt it..." He looked around at the "scenery" as he called it, "Not too great pickings today."

Sora rolled his eyes, "You're ridiculous."

Riku looked back at Sora and shrugged, "So, I have an appreciation for the female anatomy. Sue me..."

"When I find a lawyer, maybe I will," Sora joked.

Riku chuckled, "Right... I'm sure." He reached his hand down, "Now, get up. I haven't gotten you back for whacking me this morning yet."

Sora smiled, "You're asking for it..." He grabbed Riku's outstretched hand and pulled himself up with Riku's help.

Sora grabbed his fallen sword and squared off against Riku. Riku smirked, "Same rules as always?"

Sora smirked right back, "Why don't we mix it up a little?"

Riku raised an eyebrow, "How do you mean?"

"First one to call 'mercy' loses," Sora challenged.

Riku narrowed his eyes, "Doesn't that seem a bit dangerous?"

Sora laughed, "Don't worry... I won't hurt you too bad."

Riku's face returned to its usual smirk, "Fine... But just know that this was _your_ idea."

And with that Riku dove at Sora. He swung his sword with a wide arc, hoping to overpower Sora quickly. Sora stepped out of the way and quickly closed the distance between them. If he was close, then Riku would have to resort to smaller slashes or jabs which were easier to counter.

As expected Riku thrust his blade directly at Sora's chest. Sora quickly parried the attack and slashed at Riku's side. Riku jumped back and countered with another wide arc. Sora brought his sword up and blocked, but he had to use both hands to endure the force of the blow.

Sora pushed Riku off and attempted to stab at Riku's stomach. Riku jumped back, but Sora was already following with a wide swing to Riku's left side. Riku was right-handed so he couldn't block it in time. He grunted as the blow landed and before he could respond Sora brought the sword straight down on Riku's head.

Riku stumbled slightly as the blow dazed him and Sora took this opportunity to disarm him and shove him backwards. Riku tumbled to the ground and Sora stood triumphantly above him. Sora smirked down at Riku who was gritting his teeth. Before Sora knew what was going on, Riku had jumped up and tackled Sora to the ground releasing his grip on his weapon in the process.

Now, both were unarmed and Riku was pinning Sora to the ground. Riku was the one smirking now, "Give up?"

Sora struggled against Riku's hold, but it was no use. Riku was just stronger. He couldn't overpower him. So, he took a different approach. Sora brought his knee up and hit Riku where the sun don't shine. Riku yelped in pain and fell off of Sora. It was a cheap trick, but Sora had to get creative when going against Riku, "Sorry, but I'm not losing today."

Sora grabbed both swords and faced Riku who was shooting daggers from his eyes, "You son of a bitch!"

Sora held one sword pointed down behind his back and held the other out in front of him horizontally across his body. This way he could block with the sword in his left hand and then bring the sword in his right down on his opponent if necessary. Sora smiled, "All's fair in love and war, isn't it?"

Riku growled, "If you want a war, you've got it!" He picked up a long stick at his feet and held it up above his head pointing towards Sora. He held his left hand out with the palm facing up, "Let's go!"

Sora charged Riku, but Riku got an attack off first. He swung his stick at Sora's left side. It was too late to jump back and blocking it with his weak arm wouldn't do much. Sora chose to dive to the ground and roll away from the attack. He stood quickly and slashed at Riku. Riku jumped back and brought the stick down full force on Sora. Sora quickly raised both blades to block the attack.

He held the stick there just a few inches from his face by crossing the blades and catching the attack in the middle. Before Sora could think to do much else Riku brought his leg up and kicked Sora full force backward. Sora hit the ground and looked up in time to see Riku bringing the the stick down once again. Sora quickly rolled out of the way and stood.

Now, he held a different stance. He was more open now holding his swords pointed away from him. This way he could get close and dish out as much damage as possible without having to worry about Riku trying wide attacks. Riku was already trying to swing his stick at Sora's left side. Learning from his past mistake, Sora crossed his blades and caught the blow. Only now, Riku didn't have gravity and both hands at his disposal.

Sora pulled with all his strength and the stick slipped out of Riku's grip. Sora quickly followed with an assault of slashes and stabs before finally kicking Riku back in much the same fashion Riku had done to him. Riku fell on his back and Sora quickly crossed the swords and placed them over Riku threateningly.

Riku looked up with surprise clear on his face before breaking out into a grin, "You got me!"

Sora smiled back, "You give?"

Riku nodded and laughed, "Yeah. You definitely gave me a beating. I'm impressed."

Sora laughed, too, "Well, I don't mean to brag, but..." He pretended to flex and show off his "muscles", "I've been working out..."

Riku chuckled, "Yeah... Sure..."

Sora dropped the swords and helped Riku up, "Sorry about the whole kneeing you in the balls thing..."

Riku shrugged, "Hey. No harm, no foul. I'm sure my guys are still swimming just fine. Course, I might have to find a test partner and find out for sure." Sora just rolled his eyes. Meanwhile, Riku was scanning the area again looking for said "partner".

Sora didn't doubt Riku would find someone interested in the "experiment", but he sure as hell didn't want Riku to start looking right this second, "Hey. Could you hold off on-"

"Hey, baby. How's it going?" Too late. Riku had found his target. A short girl with black hair cut short so it barely reached the base of her neck. She had deep blue eyes and she was wearing a a navy blue t-shirt and white, short shorts. She was sitting on a towel and reading a book. Riku couldn't help but think she looked vaguely familiar, but it didn't matter.

"Excuse me?" The girl didn't seem amused by Riku's greeting.

Riku was a little taken aback by the response, but he continued, "I said, how's it going, sweetheart?"

The girl raised an eyebrow, "Sweetheart?"

Riku gave his signature smirk, "If you don't like that maybe you could tell me your name and I'll just call you that?"

The girl rolled her eyes and returned her attention her book, "No, thank you."

Riku's jaw dropped. Meanwhile, Sora was trying his hardest not to start laughing, "W-what?"

The girl glanced up, "I said, No, thank you..." She smirked at him, "Sweetheart..." Then she returned to her book and completely ignored Riku.

Riku stood dumbfounded. Had he just been turned down..? How could this be? H-he was Riku... Riku didn't get turned down... Riku did the turning down... This was impossible, "Now, hold on... I, uh... I think we got off on the wrong foot."

"Too late... You had your chance at a first impression and you blew it. My opinion of you will forever be associated with the misogynistic, player-like pig that you approached me as. Sorry... Bye!" The girl was brutal and before Sora could stop himself he burst out laughter.

Riku shot Sora a glare and approached him, "What's so funny?"

Sora was having trouble forming a coherent thought, "She... She... Misogy-" He couldn't contain himself. This was too great. The amazing Riku Masamune had been shut down by a girl who would barely give him the time of day. This needed to be recorded in the Smithsonian or something as the greatest day ever... First, Sora won the match and now this... Things were certainly looking up. Sora only hoped that this tutoring thing would be a good thing for him, too.


	3. And So it Begins

**A/N: Alright. I feel like I should explain myself... This chapter was brutal. I must have rewritten it three or four times... I just couldn't figure out how I wanted this to happen, or what I wanted to happen. It was really frustrating, let me tell you... But... After many, many, many restarts I finally just decided, "You know what? Screw it! I'm just gonna write and whatever comes out is what I'm gonna post." So, that's what this is. If you like it? Great. If you don't. Understandable. Either way, you should probably leave a review, so that I know what to do in the future. Trust me, I could really use the encouragement. Thanks, guys, and enjoy...**

* * *

"So, your tutoring starts today?" Riku and Sora were walking down the hallway before class.

Sora nodded, "Yep. I'm gonna meet my tutor at the library at 3 o' clock."

"Well, good luck, buddy. If your grades from last year are any indicator, then you're gonna need it." Sora shoved the chuckling Riku and they parted ways. Riku was technically a year older than Sora, but his parents had held him back a year for sports. Even so, Riku was smarter than Sora and took more of the advanced classes offered at the school.

Sora entered his first class of the day, Alegbra II with Mr. Wise. Ansem Wise was a tall man with long blonde hair and a goatee of the same color. He had an air to him that made him seem, well... Wise. On top of that, he had these blood orange eyes that seemed to stare right through you. Mr. Wise began his lecture and Sora quickly became lost amidst the numbers and letters that he jotted up on the board. Why did there have to be letters in Math? Couldn't they stay in English class where they belong?

"Mr. Fair... Would you like to solve the equation that's on the board?" Mr. Wise was hovering over a very confused looking Sora.

"Uh... No." Sora said hopefully.

"No..?" Mr. Wise raised an eyebrow at Sora.

"Well, you asked if I would like to solve it and I would not... So, no..." Sora explained.

"Oh, well in that case, Sora, you don't have to. Thank you for being honest with me. It would be a shame if you ever had to do anything you didn't want to do..."

"You're gonna make me solve the equation, aren't you?" Sora deflated.

"Yes, Mr. Fair, and be grateful I don't give you detention as well." Mr. Wise handed Sora a marker to write on the whiteboard with and Sora took it reluctantly.

The rest of the day passed in a very similar manner. Sora would be confused about whatever they were talking about in class and the teacher would always call on him... Did they just enjoy seeing him squirm? Why were they so cruel..? The only thing that Sora could find solace in was that he would be starting his tutoring today and everything would get better... hopefully.

Sora anxiously watched the clock tick away during his last class of the day: chemistry. Mr. Merlin was still talking in the background, but Sora didn't really care. To be honest, Sora was actually pretty good at Chemistry. He didn't know what most of the numbers and stuff meant, but he enjoyed mixing the chemicals and recording the results. Sora glanced at the clock again. Just ten more seconds...

"... the hydrochloric acid will indefinitely cause damage to your skin, so you must always remember to-"

BRIIING!

"Wear your goggles and your gloves! Safety First! Read chapter 2! See you tomorrow!" Everyone was flooding out of the room and Mr. Merlin was desperately trying to get his message across before it was too late. Sora only heard "Wear", "goggles" and "tomorrow", so after deciding to bring in his favorite scuba gear, he made his way to the library.

The place was dead. Not even the bookworms were there because there were no new books yet. It was only the second week of classes after all. Sora entered and greeted the librarian, "Hey, Mr. Paige!" Sora had met Adam Paige the previous year and had actually given him advice on what to do about his crush on Sora's English teacher, Miss Belle Rose. They'd gotten married in the summer after realizing that their love was requited even if they had no idea.

"Hello, Sora... Good to see you!" Mr. Paige was a tall, broad shouldered man with long blonde hair. Sora had given him the nickname "Beast" after seeing his slight temper and intimidating stature. "What are you doing here?"

Sora smiled at the large man, "I'm actually here for tutoring. I didn't do so hot last year, so I wanna do better this year."

Mr. Paige smiled, "That's great. I'm proud of you."

"Thanks! How are you and Mrs. Paige?"

"Fantastic! Thank you for asking..." he smiled even wider, "She and I have been talking and we're actually thinking about starting a family..."

Sora raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Really? You guys only got married in July and you're already thinking about kids?"

Mr. Paige shrugged, "Well, yes. She and I have talked extensively about it and both of us have always loved the idea of a big family. A house out on our own with plenty of excitement running through the halls."

Sora smiled, "That sounds great, Beast."

Mr. Paige shot him a look, "I thought I told you never to call me that..?"

Sora just grinned cheekily, "Well, when you work out that temper of yours, maybe I will..."

The older man gave a hardy laugh and smiled, "Fair enough, Sora. Now, where is this tutor of yours?"

Sora shrugged, "I dunno. I was supposed to meet them here at 3..." He checked his watch, 3:07. "They must be running a little late."

"Do you know who it might be?"

Sora shook his head, "No idea."

Mr. Paige looked over his shoulder and smiled broadly, "Oh. Well, this must be her! Hello, Kairi!"

"Hello, Mr. Paige! Nice to see you again!" That voice... "How are you and-" she stopped. Sora had turned around. The voice had sounded vaguely familiar, so Sora had turned to face the source and he was right. It was that girl he'd bumped into, "It's you..." She said with narrow eyes.

Mr. Paige raised an eyebrow, "So, you two already know each other?"

Sora shrugged, "Kind of... We sorta bumped into each other..."

"You knocked me to the ground!" Kairi had gained her confidence since her last confrontation with the boy. He may have caught her off guard with his good looks, but now that she knew that he was idiot _and_ a jerk, he no longer had any effect on her.

"It was an accident! I apologized, didn't I?" Sora defended. This girl, Kairi, had a completely different attitude now. What had changed?

"Now, kids-" Mr. Paige attempted.

"Why don't you just watch where you're going?" Kairi continued.

"I was opening a door! How could I have known you would be on the other side?"

"Guys..." Mr. Paige tried again.

"Be more careful when opening doors!"

"Well, why don't you-"

"CHILDREN!" Beast growled. Sora and Kairi were silenced, "Now, then... Kairi, I'm sure Sora didn't mean to knock you down and if he apologized, you should forgive him." Sora stuck his tongue out, "And Sora... You should be more careful. It's never a good thing to knock a pretty, young lady like Kairi down." Kairi smirked at Sora.

Sora sighed, "You're right... I'm sorry..."

Kairi raised an eyebrow. It was that easy? Maybe he wasn't a jerk after all... "I-it's okay... I'm sorry, too..."

Sora smiled at her and Kairi's stomach flipped. He reached out his hand, "Friends?"

Kairi felt her cheeks flush. Oh, no... Why? Why must he do this to me..? And why is _he_ the one I have to tutor... This was awful... "Uh... Let's not get ahead of ourselves..." Sora's expression fell and Kairi felt the need to give an excuse, "I mean... We know nothing about each other! We can't just befriend people we know nothing about, right?"

Sora was confused by Kairi's behavior. First, she was shy and quiet. Then she was loud and belligerent. Now, she was just being distant, "What's your deal?"

Now it was Kairi's turn to be confused, "What..?"

"Well, you keep changing your personality... At first you were all quiet, then you got really mad and now your being weird..." Sora explained.

Kairi's cheeks became hot, "I am _not_ weird..."

Sora held up his hands in defense, "I just meant that you're acting kind of strangely. You mind giving a little bit of an explanation?" Sora didn't know what to do here. He didn't want to offend her, but he felt like he was completely in the dark here and he just wanted to know what was going on.

"Why should I tell you anything..?" Kairi asked stubbornly. She wouldn't give in to his crystal, blue eyes that easily.

Sora raised an eyebrow at her. She certainly _was_ a strange one. Still, he just couldn't shake the thought that when she got all mad and frustrated like this, she was kinda cute... Not that it mattered... It didn't... It wasn't even worth mentioning. Except that he had mentioned it... "Shut up, Sora..." Had he said that out loud?

"What..?" Kairi's anger had completely deflated.

"Huh?" Sora feigned innocence.

"Did you just-"

"We should really get to studying!" Sora grabbed her hand and pulled her over to a table and sat down, "Right?"

Kairi ignored the fact that Sora had held her hand and decided to just do what she came to do: Teach. "Right... Well, uh... Where did you wanna start?"

Sora shrugged, "I dunno... I'm kind of an idiot, so wherever you think is best."

Kairi raised an eyebrow, "I'm sure you're not an _idiot_..."

Sora just nodded, "Oh, but I am... Why else would I be here?"

Kairi looked at her shoes. Now, she felt kind of bad for assuming he was stupid. Maybe he needed help, but he seemed pretty aware of what was going on which is completely different from the other meatheads. "Well, sometimes people just need a little push in the right direction..."

Sora smiled, "Thanks, Kairi."

Kairi ignored her accelerated heartbeat as best she could. Dammit, hormones! Why must you do this? And they got started. They started with chemistry because Sora mentioned that he actually enjoyed the class somewhat. It was going well except for the fact that Sora didn't understand the math part... Which was most of it. So, Kairi decided to switch to math, which was Sora's weakest subject.

Unfortunately, no matter how much Kairi tried to ignore it, Sora just had this powerful effect on her... Why? Who was he? She needed to know, "I think that's enough for now."

Sora looked at Kairi confusedly and looked at the clock, "It's only 3:40..."

"Yes, but..." Kairi had to come up with an excuse, "it'll make things much easier if we know more about each other..."

Sora raised an eyebrow. She'd been against revealing anything about herself before. "Okay..."

Kairi got right down to business, "Name."

"Sora." Sora decided to play along.

"_Full_ name."

"Sora Hikari Fair."

"Hobbies?"

"Don't I get to ask you a question now?" Sora looked at her teasingly.

Kairi sighed, "Fine..."

Sora smiled victoriously, "Friends..."

"What?" Kairi was confused.

"Who are your friends?" Sora elaborated.

"Oh. My best friend is Naminé Wise."

"Wise?" Sora asked.

"Yeah..."

"Is she related to Mr. Wise, the math teacher?"

Kairi nodded, "Yeah. She's his daughter."

"Oh..."

"Now then... Hobbies?"

"Uh... I like to hang out with my friends..."

"Anything else..?"

Sora thought about it. Besides hanging out with Riku, he didn't enjoy many things. Well, there was one thing, but... "Nope. Nothing else."

Kairi raised an eyebrow, "So, the only thing you enjoy doing is hanging out with your friends?"

Sora shrugged, "I have a lot of friends. It's a fun time."

"Whatever..."

"Why did you become a tutor..?"

Kairi was a little surprised by this one. She'd never really thought about it, "Well, uh... I don't know."

"You don't know?"

Kairi began to think about it. She'd always liked helping others. Teaching them. Maybe that was it? She shrugged, "Just because, I guess."

Sora nodded thoughtfully, "Okay... Your turn."

Kairi looked at him for a few moments. Even after learning a little more about him, she still couldn't place what it was about him that made her feel the way she did... Kairi wasn't sure if she could handle this every time she happened to see him. Let alone the fact that she would _have _to see him once a week for tutoring. She had other things she had to focus on and she couldn't let these weird feelings of hers distract her.

"No... I think that's good for now..."

Sora shrugged, "If you say so." He looked at the clock again, 3:48. "What now?"

"Nothing. You can go home now." Kairi was already packing up her stuff.

"W-what..? But I don't feel like I've learned anything... And I have a quiz in Algebra on Friday!" Sora was growing desperate.

Kairi sighed, "I've taught you all I can for now... You're just gonna have to let it sink in." She lied.

Sora nodded his head thoughtfully, "Okay... Well, uh... Thanks, I guess?"

Kairi didn't even look at him, "No problem."

What the hell! What's with these freaking mood swings? "So... Same time next week?" She didn't answer. "Uh... Kairi?"

She was halfway out the door. Could she handle this every week? "Yeah... Sure. Same time." And she left before Sora could say anymore.

Sora just stood there confused. Had he done something wrong? Maybe she just didn't think he was smart enough to handle this... Maybe he was hopeless... He shook the thoughts from his head. "I have to do something to clear my head."

Sora made his way through the halls and approached a small door that was off to the side. He reached his hand under the door and push on a little bolt until he heard a click. The door was always locked, but if you knew how, you could slip your finger under the door and loosen the lock. That way you could keep the door unlocked just long enough to open the door. Sora slipped inside and looked around. He smiled as he walked up to the large object that took up most of the room. It was covered by a tan cloth that hid it's majesty.

Sora removed the cloth unceremoniously to reveal a large, black grand piano. He marveled slightly at the sight. He'd stumbled upon this room halfway through last year and learned how to get in. No one else seemed to know about it. Sora hadn't even told anyone. It was his own little secret place.

He rounded the large instrument and approached the bench that sat in front of it. He slid onto the seat and faced the keyboard. A series of white and black keys stretched across the length of the board and Sora's fingers easily found themselves resting on top. He pushed down on one of the keys lightly so that the sound that was created was soft. He didn't want to attract attention to himself.

Sora had learned how to play the instrument when he was a kid. His mother had insisted he needed a hobby. Sora didn't understand why he couldn't just play on the beach with Riku all the time, but now he was grateful that his mother had done it. Not many people knew about it though. Even Riku never understood how Sora felt about his hidden hobby, but Sora always felt he could express himself and calm himself through music. And that's just what he did.

Soon Sora was playing through a series of songs. Some were popular and some were classical. Sora preferred playing classical songs because they were more complex and interesting, but pop songs were fun to fool around with when he was struggling with a harder piece. He sat and played like that for a while before he began to hear footsteps outside. He stopped and looked towards the door nervously.

After a little while the footsteps began to recede and fade away as the person walked past the door. Sora sighed in relief and checked his watch, 4:03. Time to go. His mom would worry about him otherwise. Sora grabbed the tan cover and threw it over the piano carefully and placed it perfectly over the top. He took one last look at the instrument and exited the room.

Sora left the school and walked home. His first tutoring session had been interesting and Kairi was right. Now that he thought about it. He had learned quite a bit. He just needed to sort out his thoughts first. Sora thought about it for a little while before deciding that he would just play the piano in the secret place after every tutoring session. Playing had allowed his mind to process everything more easily. It had relaxed him and let him think things through. Maybe if he played after every session, he could figure all of this out. But before he could figure out everything that he was being tutored on, he needed to figure out who he was being tutored by.


	4. Romantic Tension

**A/N: Hey, guys... Sorry about not updating at all for the past week or so. I've been pretty busy and severely lacking motivation. I'm actually gonna ask something of you guys at the end of the chapter, but for now, just enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

It was the beginning of another school day and as students buzzed through the halls, Roxas made his way to his first class of the day, Art. It was halfway through the second week of school and he'd avoided Naminé pretty well up until this point. He didn't share any other classes with her and by the time she or anyone else arrived at the art room, Roxas was likely already passed out at his seat.

Roxas always arrived to the school much earlier than everyone else. He didn't sleep very well. His head was too active at night to let him get much sleep. It was only when he arrived at the school and the sun was up that he could let himself drift off to dreamland. Even then, his sleep was always rudely interrupted by teachers and the like.

Some teachers didn't care that he slept because he always did pretty well on the tests anyway. Others would only get more frustrated and would reprimand him for it. Roxas hadn't received a detention yet this year, but he had a feeling if he kept going the way he was now, he would.

Still, Miss Smith, the substitute Art teacher, didn't seem to mind. In fact, she didn't really know what to do. The actual teacher, Mr. Rafiki, was on a leave of absence. Apparently he was off trying to deduce the meaning of life or something. In any case, Miss Smith, or Jean as she liked them to call her, had little to no art experience whatsoever, so art class essentially became a free period where Roxas could sleep in peace.

He rounded the corner and walked into the art room. Without really thinking, he made a beeline straight for his seat. It was in the back corner of the classroom right next to the window. The morning sun was soothing and warm. Roxas slept like a rock in this class. "Ahem..."

Roxas spun on his heel towards the source of the sound. Sitting in her normal seat at the front of the classroom was Naminé. She had a small smirk playing across her lips that made his heart leap. He masked his surprise with his normal stoic expression before responding, "Can I help you?"

"I've been coming to this class earlier and earlier every day only to find that you still beat me here and were fast asleep at your seat. So, I decided to wake up an entire hour early and walk in right when they opened the doors to the school, so at the very least I would get here at the same time. And lo and behold, I was here first," She was smirking and she had a challenging look in her eyes that distracted Roxas from the pounding in his chest. This girl would not get the best of him.

Roxas smirked, "Look, baby... If you wanted to spend time with so badly, you should've just told me. I'm sure we could have found a suitable broom closet to _get to know_ each other." As Roxas finished, a blush overcame Naminé's features. Got her...

She scoffed, "Th-that's ridiculous. I-I would never..."

Roxas simply sauntered over and leaned in close, "Never _what_..?"

Naminé's eyes widened at Roxas's closeness and her blush deepened, "N-never... never..."

Roxas broke out in laughter and backed away, "Relax... I'm just messing with you." He laughed until he locked eyes with her and suddenly the feelings in his stomach returned, "But, uh... Why did you come so early?"

Naminé was starting to gain a little more confidence now that Roxas was further away, but now her heart was beating at a million miles per hour, "Oh... I was just wondering why you're always sleeping... This is art class and I've never actually seen you draw anything."

Roxas shrugged, "Well, to be honest, I'm not a great artist." He decided not to mention the part about taking art as a blow off class.

Naminé narrowed her eyes, "Then, why take art at all?"

"Well, isn't this where someone would come if he wanted to learn?" Roxas lied.

Naminé seemed a little surprised by the answer, but then she smiled, "Well, then... Why don't you come to this room after school tomorrow. You might just learn something." And with that, she turned towards the front of the classroom and more students started trickling in. Roxas found his normal seat and sat there for a while.

Roxas stayed awake as he mulled over what to do about the current situation. He could just completely ignore the entire thing and not go, but the Naminé would only pester and annoy him as to why. But if he did go that would mean spending more time with her, and he just couldn't bring himself to do that either... Her effect on him was unsettling and if he could avoid it, he would prefer to.

He ended up staying awake for the entire class, much to the surprise of the teacher and the other students. The bell rang and Roxas was about to leave when he noticed Naminé looking at him from the corner of his eye. He looked over at her and she looked away immediately with a slight blush on her face... Was it possible that he had some kind of effect on her, too?

* * *

Thursday came and in Roxas's last class of the day, History, he struggled to stay awake. History was one of those classes that he couldn't fall asleep in without getting in trouble. Roxas's eyes began to droop, but before they could fully close, he saw a tall figure looming in front of him, "Mr. Strife... Are you sleeping in my class... _Again..?_"

Roxas shook himself awake, "No, sir. Of course not..." Mr. Yen Sid was a very, _very_ old looking man who wore a midnight blue suit and a blue tie with yellow stars and crescent moons on it. He had an impressive gray beard and hair that reached Gandalf levels of awesome. Still, his stony gaze sent nothing but fear into Roxas's heart because the old man seemed to practically ooze power and wisdom.

Mr. Sid nodded slowly, "As I was saying, the Ancient Greeks had many traditions that..." Roxas immediately felt his eyes begin to droop. Oh, god, why... "Mr. Strife!"

"I'm sorry!"

The class ended not long after that and Roxas barely escaped without a detention. He started to head for the school's exit, when he saw a flash of blonde hair. He looked over to see Naminé's retreating figure heading in the direction of the art room. Roxas's stomach clenched. He'd decided to not go, but now that the moment was actually here, he didn't know if he could bring himself to blatantly ignore Naminé's offer. He stood there for a moment contemplating what to do. What's the worst that could happen?

Roxas made his way to the art room and peered in. Naminé sat alone looking out the window. She had a sketchpad in her left hand and a pencil in her right. She was staring intently out the window at the sun-baked landscape. She was mindlessly chewing on the eraser of the pencil and she had a puzzled look on her face that Roxas couldn't help but think was adorable... Wait, what..?

He cleared his throat and Naminé spun around. The pencil fell from her mouth and landed on the floor when she smiled, "You came!"

Roxas gave a bit of a half-smile. Was she gonna be this enthusiastic all the time..? "Yeah... I did... You wanna tell me why I'm here?"

Naminé ran up and grabbed his arm before pulling him the rest of the way into the room, "I'm gonna teach you how to draw!"

Roxas tried to ignore the tingling feeling he had when Naminé touched him and shook his head, "Woah, woah, woah... I don't wanna learn how to draw..."

Naminé stopped and looked at Roxas curiously, "What..? But I thought you said that you took art class so you could learn how to be an artist..?"

Roxas caught himself in his own lie, "Oh... Well, I, uh..."

Naminé's eyes narrowed, "You took art because you wanted an easy class, didn't you?" She let go of his arm and crossed her own.

Roxas held up his hands in defense, "Look, I can explain..."

She scoffed, "I can't _believe _this. I actually thought..." She shook her head, "You know what? Whatever... If you don't wanna learn, then I'm leaving." She began to walk past him, but Roxas grabbed her hand.

"Now, hold on just a second," Roxas was starting to get a little angry as well, "Why should I have to explain myself to you? I'm sorry I lied to you, but what business is it of yours why I took the class? And why are you so concerned with me and my art abilities anyway?"

Naminé blushed slightly, but her anger didn't lessen in the slightest, "I happened to take an interest in you because I thought maybe you might be a good guy, but I guess I was wrong!"

"You don't even know me! How do you know what kind of guy I am?" Roxas retorted.

"I know enough! You're just another jerk who doesn't appreciate art."

"Oh, yeah?" Roxas saw something out of the corner of his eye and he released Naminé. He walked over to it and picked it up. It was six-string, acoustic guitar. He slung the strap over his shoulder and walked back over to Naminé, "Would a guy who doesn't appreciate art do this..?"

He began to play. It was a soft melody with small little intricacies here and there. Naminé felt her anger begin to fade away as he played. She wasn't sure what to say, but then he began to sing,

"When you were here before  
Couldn't look you in the eye.  
You're just like an angel.  
Your skin makes me cry.  
You float like a feather  
In a beautiful world.  
I wish I was special.  
You're so fucking special."

Naminé was speechless. There was so much emotion and passion in his voice, but he still sang very lightly. His voice was velvety smooth and clear as a bell.

"But I'm a creep.  
I'm a weirdo.  
What the hell am I doing here?  
I don't belong here."

He finished with a G chord and Naminé just stared at him. Every word he sang sounded like he actually meant them. Like he _felt_ them. They were silent for a while before Naminé finally spoke, "Roxas..."

Roxas just shook his head, "I... I'm sorry... I shouldn't have-"

"No, Roxas... It's not your fault. It's mine. I shouldn't have assumed anything..." She looked at Roxas for a moment, "Is that... Is that how you really feel?"

Roxas avoided looking at her. Why did he play that song? Of all the songs he could've played. Why that one? "I don't know..." Roxas placed the guitar on a nearby table and turned fully away from Naminé.

She stood there for a moment or two before deciding to make a brave motion. She wrapped her arms around Roxas's midsection and buried her face in his back, "Roxas... I'm so sorry... I didn't mean for you to-"

Roxas turned around and looked Naminé directly in the eye. He was a little surprised at her actions, but he smiled comfortingly, "You didn't do anything wrong. It's fine."

Naminé looked up at him and blushed slightly, "Are you sure that you're okay?"

Roxas nodded, "I'm fine. Don't worry about it."

Naminé smiled sweetly, "Good. I didn't want to upset you." She paused, "I'm sorry for judging you so harshly."

Roxas's stomach was doing front flips because they were still pretty close to one another, "I-it's okay... I, uh... I was acting weird..."

Naminé continued to smile. Then, she realized that how close they were and pulled away. She was blushing pretty madly now, "S-sorry..."

Roxas scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "It's okay..." He repeated.

Naminé was now looking at her feet, "You're really good by the way..."

Roxas smiled slightly, "You think so?"

Naminé nodded before looking up at Roxas again, "Yeah. I do... I really liked it."

"Thanks..." They stood like that for a while: just staring at one another and neither saying a word. Those feelings were still there, but they were both starting to become a little more comfortable with them. Finally, Roxas spoke again, "Hey, so, maybe... Sometime... You and I could, uh..."

"Naminé," The voice came from the doorway. Both blondes spun around to see Mr. Wise, a math teacher standing there with a raised eyebrow, "It's time to go..."

Roxas looked at Naminé who was now blushing furiously, "Yeah. Sorry, Daddy. I, uh, lost track of time..."

"_Daddy_?" Roxas stood confused as Naminé began to collect her things.

Mr. Wise stepped into the room, "Yes... Naminé is my daughter. Is that surprising to you, Mr. Strife?"

Roxas looked up at the intimidating figure, "No, sir. Of course not. I just didn't know is all."

The older man simply stared down at Roxas while Naminé finished packing away her things, "Now, then. Let's go, Naminé. I'd like to get home quickly, so that I can start dinner."

"Of course, Daddy," Naminé stood next to Mr. Wise and he began to make his way to the door. Naminé looked back at Roxas and opened her mouth to say something, but then she changed her mind and scurried off after her father before either could say anything.

Roxas just stood there in the art room by himself for a little while after that. He pondered what just happened. What had he been about to do? Ask her out? That's ridiculous. He couldn't do that. That would be... Well, that would be ridiculous. No. He couldn't. So, the most conclusion now would be... To completely avoid her... Right? Of course... Perfect plan. Roxas would never talk to Naminé again.

* * *

**A/N: So, this is the kind of writing I would like to do. If you like it, please let me know in a review. Honestly, I'm losing motivation to write this story at all. I need you guys to give me some feedback letting me know you're at least interested. I do have a one or two people that have reviewed and I really appreciate that, but with everything going on this story has been falling to the bottom of my priorities list. So, if you'd like to see this story continue, I would greatly appreciate some reviews to let me know how you guys feel about all this. Thanks!**


	5. The Ultimatum

**A/N: Hey, guys. Thank you to those that reviewed. I really do appreciate it. Maybe I'm just being a little greedy in asking for more reviewers, but I honestly am thankful for those that have reviewed thus far. I will do my best to stay motivated and finish out this story, but I'll have to ask that you guys continue to lend me your support and offer feedback and criticism so that this story can be the best it can be. Thanks guys and enjoy!**

* * *

Sora couldn't sleep. Tomorrow was Friday and that meant that he would have his first quiz in math for the year. He didn't really feel like he learned much at all in class and little of what Mr. Wise said made any sense to him. He'd tried contacting Kairi to possibly get more help, but she seemed to be avoiding him. Anytime that he saw her, she would immediately turn and run away. Had he done something wrong?

Sora glanced at the clock. 11:48. Damn... He couldn't stay up too late or he might just sleep through the exam and completely bomb it. "Sleep... I must sleep..." He forced his eyes closed and started shifting around in an attempt to get comfortable, but nothing seemed to work. After lying there for what seemed like forever, he peeked at the clock again. 11:51. "Dammit!"

Sora reached for his cellphone, which was on his bedside table next to his alarm clock and unlocked it. He needed something to occupy his mind until he grew tired enough to sleep. He browsed the internet for a few minutes, but there was nothing particularly interesting that caught his eye.

He skimmed his contacts for someone who might be awake and willing to talk to him: Riku? Nah... If he was awake this late, it was only so that he could attempt to seduce his latest conquest. Besides since that thing with the girl on the beach, he seemed to lack the motivation for such activities. Tidus? Wakka? Nope... They both go to sleep super early because their always exhausted after baseball practice. Sora's eyes lingered on a person he hadn't spoken to in a while. "Why not..? He's usually awake this late."

He sent a simple text, _Hey._

And after a few minutes, surprisingly, he received a response, _What's up?_

_Nothin. Couldn't sleep. Hbu?_

_Just listenin 2 music. If u don't mind me askin... Y r u txting me?_

Sora expected as much. He and Roxas had never been close. Their father's were both veterans of SOLDIER and good friends. So, as a result Sora and Roxas had known each other for a long time, but they never really clicked as friends. _Just thought I'd say hey is all. Knew u'd be awake._

_Fair enough._

Sora sat there unsure of what to say for a little while. _So... How've u been?_

They talked like that for awhile. Small talk mostly, but Roxas hinted that there was something else on his mind. Sora didn't prod him about it because it wasn't really his place, but it took a lot to unsettle Roxas, so Sora was a little curious to say the least. Apparently it was some girl, but aside from that Sora knew nothing. After about a half hour, Sora started feeling drowsy, so he bid Roxas a goodnight and after a few minutes, he fell asleep.

* * *

Sora made it to class with a few minutes to spare the next morning. He noticed the other students had their noses in their notes. Some were quizzing each other and some were studying alone. And still others seemed to just be relaxing. Sora found himself wondering if they already knew all the information or if they just didn't care.

BRIIING!

The bell marked the beginning of the class and Mr. Wise didn't waste anytime before passing out the quizzes and muttering words of encouragement to the students. He made it to Sora and gave him a reassuring nod, "You'll do fine, Mr. Fair." He placed the sheet in front of Sora and moved on.

Sora looked down at the paper and took a deep breath, "Here we go..."

* * *

Sora left the class feeling pretty confident. He knew a bunch of the answers and he actually finished the quiz, which is more than he could say for many of his exams the previous year. He'd had to guess on a few because he had no idea how to solve them, but regardless, Sora was feeling really good about the whole thing. Mr. Wise said that the quizzes would be graded by Monday, which meant that Sora would know how well he did in time to see Kairi for tutoring Monday afternoon.

The rest of the day seemed to fly by easily and before he knew it, Sora was at home eating dinner with his family. "So, Sora... How'd that quiz go?" His mother asked nonchalantly.

"You had a quiz today?" His father interjected.

Sora smiled, "Yeah, I did, dad. And I think it went pretty well. The tutoring I got definitely made me a little more confident."

Aerith smiled, "Well, then I hope that you continue."

Sora nodded, "Definitely!"

* * *

Kairi was pacing in her room. She felt awful because she may not have prepared Sora enough for that quiz he'd had in Algebra. As a tutor it was her responsibility to help other students to do better in their classes. She'd failed at that. But only because she couldn't stand to be around Sora... And she still wasn't entirely sure why.

There was just something about him that made it impossible for her to focus. It was so bad that anytime that she saw him in the halls she had to get away as quickly as possible to avoid bumping into people or walking straight into walls. Because those things had happened when Sora was around before. Kairi wasn't sure if he'd noticed, but she was a lot more clumsy just when he was in the area.

"This sucks..." Kairi mumbled to herself.

"What sucks?" Kairi jumped and turned towards the source of the voice. It was her father, Squall Leonhart. He preferred to be called "Leon" though. She figured it was because it made him seem more intimidating to his opponents. The scar across his face definitely helped that cause, too. All around, with his long, dark brown hair, stoic expression and lean, but muscular build, Kairi's father was pretty scary.

"Oh... Nothing," Kairi lied. "What are you doing home? I thought you were meeting with your latest client..."

"Your mother took the case instead. She said that it was more her style and I didn't argue," He smirked. "Your mother is the only person in existence that can beat me in an argument."

Kairi giggled, "I know."

Leon's smirk faded, "That said, I can usually see through other people's lies and counterarguments pretty easily. So, why don't you tell me what's wrong..?"

Kairi suddenly became very interested in her shoes, "It's just something with school. It's not a big deal..."

Leon just stood there impassively, "Some_thing_? Or some_one.._?"

Kairi's mouth fell open slightly. Her father's powers of deduction were scarily good, "Well..."

"Is it a boy..?" Leon pressed.

Kairi blushed slightly, "Well..."

"Do I need to teach him a lesson..?" He began to clench his fists threateningly.

Kairi shook her head furiously, "No, dad... No. It's not like that. Yes. Technically, it's a boy, but I'm just tutoring him... And he's..." Kairi wasn't sure how to phrase it, "He's hard to work with..."

Leon nodded thoughtfully, "I see... Dump him..."

Kairi was shocked, "What..?"

Leon shrugged, "If you're not getting anywhere with him and he'd being difficult, quit wasting your time with him and let him fail on his own. Simple..."

"Isn't that a little _mean_?"

Leon shook his head, "No. If anything, it's his own fault. He's being mean to himself in making things difficult. It's not your responsibility to ensure that this boy learns... You're not his teacher."

Kairi's father's persuasion skills were amazing. Kairi found herself agreeing with everything he said, "You-You're right... I'm supposed to meet him on Monday. I'll tell him that I can't work with him anymore."

Leon nodded, "Good." He smiled, "Now, things don't suck so much, do they?"

Kairi gave a half-smile, "Sure... Thanks, dad..."

Leon gave her a kiss on the forehead, "Anytime, Kairi. Goodnight..." And with that he was gone.

Kairi looked out the window at the house across the street. _His_ house. While her father was right in that the most logical solution would be to just stop tutoring Sora, he was wrong in other ways. This would most certainly suck.

* * *

Monday finally came and Sora was excited to know his results on his Algebra quiz. He practically sprinted to the classroom when he arrived at school and made it before anyone else. Mr. Wise was sitting at his desk and looked up with a bit of confusion on his face, "Hello there, Mr. Fair. You're early this morning."

Sora chuckled slightly, "Sorry, Mr. Wise. I'm just really curious about my quiz results..."

The older man raised an eyebrow, "Is that so?" Sora nodded, "Well, in that case I can show you your grade right now."

Sora smiled, "Thanks!"

Mr. Wise simply smiled warmly and searched through a small pile that was on his desk. Sora's was towards the top because it was in alphabetical order, "Ah... Fair... Here you are." He pulled out a paper and scanned it briefly to make sure it was the right one, "Yes. This is yours. They're not in the system yet, so I will be needing this back when you're done with it."

"Sure. Of course." Mr. Wise handed over the paper and Sora looked it over excitedly. When he saw the grade at the top, he stopped, "I... I don't believe this..."

Mr. Wise looked curiously at him, "Is something wrong?"

Sora didn't respond directly. He just stared at the paper, "I got a 'C'... This is... Fantastic!" Sora's smile grew incredibly wide. "A 'C'! Wow! I haven't scored this high on a Math test since middle school!"

Mr. Wise shook his head with an amused expression, "Well, then I'm very happy for you, Sora..."

Sora looked giddily at the teacher, "Thank you so much, Mr. Wise!" He paused and thought for a moment, "Do you think I could take this and show it to someone? I need proof of how well I did."

Mr. Wise frowned slightly, "Well... It's not in the system yet..." He thought for a moment, "But I suppose I could put it in right now and let you have it." He smiled at Sora.

"Thank you!" The blonde man took the paper and started inputting the information into his computer's grading system. After a couple of keystrokes, the paper was back in Sora's hands, "Thanks again!" Sora sat down as the last of the students entered the classroom. He was practically floating on air.

* * *

Sora came crashing down hard, "What do you mean, you're not gonna tutor me anymore..?"

Kairi frowned, "I'm sorry, Sora... I just don't think you're benefiting enough from it and I'd rather we didn't waste our time..."

"But..." Sora was practically heartbroken. He pulled out his paper, "I got a 'C'... That's a passing grade... And it's because of you."

Kairi felt her heart plunging at Sora's words. It was almost enough to overcome the fuzziness that she already felt from Sora's presence. Almost... "Sora... That's great, but... 'C''s aren't gonna get you very far in this life. You need to do better than that, and I can't help you do that on my own."

"What do you mean?"

Kairi wasn't sure how to phrase it. Suddenly, all of her father's points seemed to fade into thin air, "It's just that... You're difficult to work with..."

Sora narrowed his eyes, "Am I doing something wrong? I don't understand."

Kairi shook her head, "No... It's just... You, uh... You don't..." She had to come up with an excuse, "You don't learn very well. You don't understand the information without a lot of work and I can't do it all." It was half-true. She might have been able to help him, if she could freaking focus!

Sora pressed his lips together as he thought. He didn't _learn_ well? "Well, what if I _could_ learn well..?"

Kairi was a little surprised, "What?"

An idea was bubbling in Sora's head, "What if I found a way to learn the information I needed to know and I got better than a 'C'?"

"Sora... I don't know if you-" Kairi started.

"I have an English test on Thursday. If I get a 'B' on it without your help, then I'm teachable. Then, you have no excuse but to help me," Sora reasoned.

Kairi thought about this. If she made this deal then there was a good chance she wouldn't have to deal with Sora anymore. There was a very low chance of him doing well on this test without her help. And even with her help, he'd only gotten a "C". Then again, if he pulled it off, she would be stuck with him and that wouldn't be good at all. "I'll tell you what... If you can get an 'A' on the test without my help, then I'll tutor you."

Sora was shocked, "An 'A'?! How am I supposed to get an 'A'? I haven't aced a test in years!"

"SHUSH!" Beast hollered from his desk.

"Sorry..." They both whispered in unison.

Kairi looked at Sora, "Look... I know it seems impossible, but if you can do it, then I'll help you for the rest of year. I'll make sure you do well on every single test, quiz and essay all year long. Guaranteed." She was really playing herself up now, but she had to make the deal seem desirable if he was going to take it. In all honesty, she knew that he would never get an "A" on the test, but he couldn't know that.

Sora thought for a moment. If he studied hard and got an "A" on this, then Kairi would help him all year. Something about spending all that time with Kairi made Sora smile... He wasn't sure why though... "Deal." He reached out his hand.

Kairi smiled back and took his hand. "We'll meet here after school on Friday. Got it?"

Sora smiled enthusiastically, "You bet." The shook and the deal was struck.


	6. Pain and No Gain

Tuesday morning came and Riku walked to the school alone. The absence of certain spiky haired best friend didn't go unnoticed either. Riku had gone to his house to pick him up earlier that morning, but according to his father, Sora had left a while ago. What was his deal anyway? Sora had trouble waking up early enough to get to school on time, let alone early.

Whatever the case, Riku walked the streets of Destiny Island alone that morning. He didn't mind so much, he enjoyed his alone time. Sometimes he preferred to be alone rather than to be with his friends. Not that he didn't enjoy spending time with his friends. It was just a little tiresome sometimes.

These days Riku was spending much of his time alone. Sora was busy with whatever... Tidus and Wakka only ever talked about baseball and who the hell cares about that? He used to fill his time with all of his "lady friends", but lately he wasn't really feeling that either. He couldn't quite place the reason, but none of them seemed to do it for him anymore. They were still practically throwing themselves at his feet, but he didn't even feel like trying.

Riku reached the school and sighed, "Another long day..."

"I know, right?"

Riku felt the presence before he heard it, so he wasn't all that surprised to hear the voice, "Yuffie..." Riku glanced at the raven haired beauty. She was a year older, but she was shorter. Her black hair was cut short and her brown eyes were cold. She was wearing a blue crop top and tan short shorts.

"Riku," she said bitterly.

"What do you want?" Riku said coolly.

"I've been watching you lately, Riku... I have to say I'm surprised," Yuffie began.

Riku smirked, "When are you gonna move on, Yuf... It's been a year and you're still following me around?"

She chuckled, "I _have _moved on, Riku... It's just fun to watch you sabotage yourself from the outside." Riku remained silent, "But my point is that you've actually been a good boy for the past few days."

Riku grunted, "What do you mean..?"

"Tell me... How many girls have you been with since we broke up?"

Riku's face remained unchanged, "I don't-"

"And how many have you been with in the past week..?"

Riku shrugged, "None... But I don't see-"

"I'm just saying that given your track record, I'm surprised that you're not going through some kind of withdrawal."

"Maybe I'm not who you think I am..."

"Maybe... Probably not..."

Riku turned fully towards the woman, "Look, I-" But she was gone. "Freaking ninja..." he growled.

* * *

Riku didn't see Sora all day. Even during lunch, Sora was nowhere to be found. He tried going to his house after school, but his parents said that he wasn't home.

"What the hell?" Riku was currently tossing a football in the air and catching it in his backyard. "Where is that moron?"

"I resent that..." Riku glanced over towards his back door and saw Sora leaning on the frame, "Heard you were looking for me..?"

"Yeah, man... Where have you been? I'm bored..." Riku threw the ball at Sora and he caught it easily.

Sora tossed it back, "I've been busy. In fact, I can't stay long. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay."

Riku caught the ball unceremoniously, "What the fuck, man..? What are you so busy with?"

Sora suddenly got a little timid, "I've been studying..."

"Studying?!" Riku laughed, "Are you serious? Dude, it's one thing to get a tutor to make sure you don't fail, but what are you studying all night for? And what makes it more important than hanging out with your best friend?"

Sora shrugged, "It just is, man. But trust me... If all goes well, I'm gonna be free to do whatever by this Friday..."

"You better... Or I'm gonna get you..." Riku pointed his finger at Sora threateningly and they both laughed a bit.

"Fair enough," he glanced at his watch. 4:57. "I gotta go. I'll see ya later, Riku..." And he was gone.

"See ya, Sora..." Riku let the football drop to ground forgotten.

* * *

The next day didn't start very differently from the first: Riku walked alone, his classes were uneventful, no sign of Sora anywhere... But then towards the end of the day, he saw her. That girl... The one from the beach. He never got her name. Something in him wanted to talk to her, so, he made his way over, "Hey!"

"Heeey!" The girl was blocked from vision by a spunky brunette by the name of Selphie. She had brown hair that touched her shoulders before curling out and bright green eyes. She wore a white blouse and a blue skirt that was a little shorter than it probably should have been.

Riku deflated slightly, "Oh, hey, Selphie..."

The girl pouted at Riku's reaction, "What's wrong, Riku..? Aren't you happy to see me?"

Riku rolled his eyes, "Ecstatic, but I really gotta-"

"So, what's the problem?" She flashed a bright smile that most guys would've loved to be on the receiving end of. Unfortunately, Riku was not one of those guys. He was too busy looking over Selphie's shoulder at the raven haired girl that he so desperately wanted to speak to.

"Well, I'm kinda busy right now..." Riku grunted with a mild twinge of irritation.

"Too busy to just talk to me for a little while..?" Selphie pouted again. Riku had to admit that Selphie was, in fact, a cute girl, but he wasn't interested in her at the moment.

"I'm afraid so. Bye!" he pushed past her lightly and made his way to the mystery girl, "Hey..."

She looked up at him and immediately recognized him. She gave a bored sigh, "What?"

Riku smiled shyly. Wait... Shy? Why is he shy? What's going on? "Uh... I never really got your name..."

The girl smirked, "That's because I chose not to give it to you..."

"Well... Maybe you could tell me now? I haven't made any sexist or misogynistic remarks..." Riku reasoned.

She shrugged, "True... But there's still time..."

Riku gritted his teeth, "Look, I'm really trying here... Can't you just cut me some slack..?" The girl peered up at him curiously, but didn't say anything. Riku continued, "Ever since I met you... I haven't even looked at another girl... I don't know why... But I'm not that guy you met on that beach. I'm not..."He didn't put two and two together until just that moment. He wasn't sure why, but this girl had definitely impacted him in ways he never thought possible. He looked her dead in the eye, "My name is Riku Masamune. And you are..?"

She continued to stare without words until Riku eventually sighed and began to walk away. Just before he was out of earshot, he heard her say, "Xion... Xion Kisaragi."

Riku looked back, but she was gone, "Kisaragi, huh?"

* * *

Xion made her way to the school parking lot where her sister was waiting. Because Yuffie was a Senior and had a license, she drove both of them to and from school each day. Xion climbed into the battered, black beetle and Yuffie turned they key bringing the car to life. It wasn't the best car in the world, but it did the job.

"So, how was your day, little sister?" Yuffie said cheerfully. Yuffie had moments where she would get really serious or cynical, but for the most part she was a bubbly, cheerful person.

"It was fine. This guy was trying to hit on me today, but I shut him down..." Xion said nonchalantly.

"Guy!? What guy? Is he cute? What's he like?" Yuffie was bursting with curiosity. Her little sister was being admired by some boy. It was so cute.

"I mean... I guess he was pretty attractive, but he seems like a toolbag..."

Yuffie's shoulders slumped in disappointment, "Oh, come ooon, Xi... He can't be that bad..."

Xion shrugged, "I mean he was a lot worse the first time I met him... He called me "baby" and "sweetheart"... I almost tore his head off..." She paused, "But today... I dunno. He was different. He seemed more genuine... So, I told him my name..." Xion smiled a little to herself before clearing her throat, "Not that it matters..."

Yuffie smiled, "I'm sure... So, you said he was attractive, huh..? What does he look like?"

Xion rolled her eyes. Leave it to Yuffie to ignore a guys flaws if he might be hot... "Well, he's got long, silver hair and blue eyes. He's pretty tall, especially compared to me. Oh, and he's like super muscular..." Suddenly, Yuffie slammed on the brakes and Xion hit her head on the dashboard, "What the hell, Yuf!?"

"What's his name..?" Yuffie said calmly.

Xion rubbed her head, "I dunno... You might have just knocked the memory right out of my head just now..."

"What's this guy's name, Xion..." Yuffie's voice was low and threatening.

Xion looked at her older sister confusedly, "Riku, I think... Why?"

"Stay away from him..." Yuffie said bluntly.

"What..? Why? Is he-"

"He's an asshole, Xion... Anything and everything he told you was probably just so he could get in your pants... God... The freaking pervert! He's like seventeen! What's he doing hitting on my little sister..?"

Xion was still confused, "Who is this guy? How do you know him?"

Yuffie sighed, "Do you remember that guy I was seeing last year... The one I never shut up about..?"

Xion raised an eyebrow, "Yeah..."

"That's him... We dated for months... I never brought him home to see you guys because I didn't think you would approve. He was a freshman at the time after all. But that didn't matter. He was nice. And funny. And attractive... We even..." She didn't finish her last statement, "He dumped me... Said it was complicated. Said that he still cared about me, but he couldn't be with me anymore..." She released a sharp breath, "Next thing I know, he's sleeping with anything that moves. It's like I didn't mean anything..." Yuffie looked directly at her younger sister, "Stay away from him... Do you hear me, Xion..? He's bad news... No matter what he says..."

Xion looked at her sister. She had tears in her eyes. Xion wrapped her arms around her, "I never knew... I'm sorry, Yuf..." Yuffie restrained herself from crying into Xion's shoulder, "I'll stay away... I promise..."

Yuffie nodded, "Thanks, Xi..."

After Yuffie calmed down, they drove the rest of the way home and Yuffie began to fix dinner. Their parents were never home because of work and things, so the two of them had to fend for themselves most of the time. While Yuffie cooked, Xion was lost in her thoughts... She knew that he was a jerk. Guys like that... They were despicable... Couldn't be trusted... But, still... He'd seemed so genuine about changing... About not being that guy... No! He's still that guy... He's not some knight in shining armor whose just gonna show up at your doorstep with roses...

DING DONG!

Xion looked over at the front door with mild surprise. Who could it be? "I'll get it," she said as she walked towards the door. She opened the door and let out a gasp of surprise... It was Riku.

"Hey..." he smiled at her and held out a flower. It was a red rose. What are the fucking odds..?

Xion scowled, "What do you want?"

Riku was surprised by the statement. He was even a little hurt, but he covered it up with a stoic expression, "I just wanted to stop by and ask you something..."

Xion rolled her eyes, "Make it quick..."

Riku's face changed to one of mild irritation, "What's up with you..? I thought that we were okay?"

"Why would you think that?"

"I don't know... I thought that maybe since you told me your name that you..."

"That I what..? You thought I _liked_ you or something..?" Riku remained silent, "Well, I don't. I don't like douchebags who treat girls like their nothing."

Riku looked at her, but this time he didn't cover the hurt, "This is about Yuffie, isn't it?"

Speak of the devil, Yuffie called from the kitchen, "Who's at the door, Xi?"

Xion looked over her shoulder, "No one! Don't worry about it!" She turned back to Riku, "Get out of here..."

Riku hung his head in sadness, "Look... You don't understand..."

Xion grew angrier by the second, "I _do_ understand... You made my sister care about you... Then, when you got what you wanted out of her, you left her like she was nothing... Then you went around and slept with as many girls as you could find because that's all you are... Some womanizing, narcissistic asshole who will sleep with anyone and everyone. You think that makes you great..? You think it makes you big and manly? Well, it doesn't. It's pathetic... And so are you..."

Riku remained silent for a little while before speaking, "I'm sorry you feel that way..." He looked up and he had a small smile on his face, "But just you wait... Some day soon... I'm gonna change that." And with that he turned on his heel and walked away.

Xion stood in place with a look of confusion and slight irritation on her face. What did he mean by that? He couldn't change how she felt... That's just stupid... Riku Masamune is and always would be an insufferable, sexist jerk in her eyes. And nothing he did or said would change that.


	7. Study or Die

**A/N: A quick thank you to all the people who reviewed! I really appreciate it, guys. Thank you so much. Enjoy!**

* * *

_Tuesday Afternoon_

BRIIING!

The final bell rang signifying the end of the school day. Sora gathered the last of his things and headed back to his new haven, the library. He'd spent the morning, lunch and now he was going to spend a good portion of the afternoon there. If he was gonna ace this English test, he was really gonna have to work for it.

Beast peered around from behind a bookcase at the sound of the library door opening. He smiled at Sora, "Back again, I see..."

Sora smiled back, "Hey, Mr. Paige. Yeah. I am."

Beast stopped whatever it was that he was doing and approached Sora with a curious look on his face, "I must say... I've seen many students come through this school and spend hours upon hours in the library. Honestly, I never thought you would be one of them."

"Hey!" Sora feigned offense. They both chuckled.

"To be perfectly candid, I _am_ surprised. Is there any particular reason you've decided to spend so much time in the library this year?" Beast raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

Sora nodded, "Yeah... Like I mentioned before, I wanna do better in school this year. To do that, I really need a tutor."

Beast nodded, "I understand that. And you have one, so why must you spend so much time here outside of your sessions..? Not that I mind, of course. I enjoy the company. I'm just curious is all."

Sora frowned slightly, "Well... The thing is that Kairi thinks that I'm a bad learner... So, she doesn't wanna waste her time tutoring me anymore."

Beast's eyes widened, "That doesn't sound like her at all. Kairi is always willing to help other students. In fact, before she was an official tutor she would spend hours in this library helping other students with outside projects and research papers."

Sora shrugged sadly, "I'm starting to think she just doesn't like me..." Beast looked at him sympathetically, but didn't say anything. Sora shook the sad thoughts from his head and smiled cheerily, "But then we made a deal. We agreed that if I could get an 'A' on my English Test without her help, she would _have_ to tutor me."

Beast nodded again, "I see... One last question: I'm sure that there are other tutors available... Maybe there weren't before, but now there ought to be a few, right? Why not just sign up for another tutor? Why go through the trouble of proving yourself to Kairi?"

Sora wasn't sure what to say. He hadn't thought about it. He probably _could_ find another tutor at this point. One that was less confusing and wouldn't make him stress out so much about a test. So, why didn't he? "I guess... I just have a feeling that Kairi can help me. I just have to show her that I'm worth her time first..." Sora answered.

Beast smiled knowingly, "I'm sure she can... Maybe even in ways you don't even know yet..."

Sora raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean..?"

Beast shook his head, "Oh, nothing... Just talking to myself. Don't worry about it." Sora was about to say something when Beast continued, "Now, then... You need to get an 'A' on an English test, you say?" He smirked, "Luckily, I'm rather close to the teacher..."

Sora and Beast spent about an hour or so going over all the information that Sora may need to know for the test. Because Beast was married to Mrs. Paige, the English teacher, he knew a lot about what was going to be covered on the test. It wasn't cheating because he didn't give the exact answers, but they discussed everything Sora would need to know.

By the time Sora left the library he was already feeling much more confident about the test. In fact, one more day in the library and Sora knew that he would be golden. "I'll just spend the rest of the night studying the material and I'll get an 'A' for sure!" He stopped in the middle of the street. As his own words began to sink in, he looked on with horror. _Study rest of the night... _"What have I become?!" The existential crisis followed him the rest of the way home.

"Sora?" Aerith called from the living room as Sora walked in the front door.

"Yeah, Mom?" Sora yelled back as he put down his book bag and began to take off his shoes.

"Riku stopped by. He said he was looking for you."

Sora hadn't seen nor heard from Riku all day, "Crap! He must think I've been avoiding him or something..." he muttered.

"What was that, honey?" Aerith called again.

"Nothing! I'm gonna go over to Riku's. I'll be right back!" Sora slipped his shoes back on and was out the door before he could hear the response. Riku's house wasn't very far away, so Sora was at his front door within a couple of minutes. Riku's mother let him in and directed him towards the backyard where Riku was.

He reached the backdoor in time to hear said silver-locked teen say, "Where is that moron?"

Riku was obvious talking about Sora, who smirked as he leaned into the frame of the door, "I resent that..."

* * *

After speaking with Riku, Sora returned to his own house. He felt a little bad about neglecting his best friend, but this was important. He still didn't have a solid reason as to why it was so important, but it was... When Sora got back home, he and his family ate dinner and talked about their days. Afterwords, Sora excused himself to his bedroom so that he could finish studying before bed.

Sora reviewed all of the information that he and Mr. Paige had gone over already and even read on a little bit. It wasn't so hard... Kairi didn't know what she was talking about. Heck. Sora could probably even improve without her help. He just didn't want to...

As Sora lay in bed that night, he found himself wondering why. Why was it so important that he get tutored by Kairi? Why when he could obviously study or learn without her? What was so special about her? Well, for one... She's pretty... Wait, what? That has nothing to do with her tutoring skills... So, it was unimportant. Entirely irrelevant, in fact... Right?

* * *

Wednesday passed in a similar fashion to Tuesday. Sora spent all his free time in the library and after school, he and Beast went over the material that Sora would need to know for the test. By the time that Sora got home, he was confident that he would ace the test easily. Still, just to be sure, he wanted to review for the rest of the night.

It was during this intense review session that the doorbell rang. "Sora, can you get that, please?" Aerith called from the other room. Sora was studying in the living room while his parents relaxed in their room.

"Sure, mom!" Sora called back as he approached the door. He swung it open to see a familiar face: Riku. Only he looked very disgruntled. Sora raised an eyebrow, "What's up?" Riku pushed past him without answering and plopped himself down on the living room couch. "Okay..." Sora muttered as he closed the door behind Riku.

Riku spent the next half hour ranting about one thing: Xion. Apparently, Xion was not only the girl who rejected him on the beach, but she was Riku's ex-girlfriend's sister. This did not bode well for Riku at all. Riku went on to talk about how he was going to convince this Xion that he wasn't a bad guy and that she should give him a chance.

It was only when he'd gotten halfway through his detailed plan that he realized Sora wasn't listening, "So, at this point the sharks have Xion's family held hostage, right? And I-" He looked up to see Sora completely oblivious to his voice, "Sora..?"

"Huh?" Sora was busy looking over his notes. He didn't even bother to look up at being addressed.

"Were you listening at all?" Riku asked with mild irritation.

"Yeah. Sure. Xion is Yuffie's sister. That's rough, man..." Sora still had yet to look at Riku. Riku then proceeded to take Sora's notebook and throw it across the room, "Hey!" Sora looked angrily at Riku, "What was that for?"

Riku smacked Sora upside the head. Without missing a beat he began to speak as if nothing happened, "Alright... You need to tell me right now why studying has suddenly become so important to you. Why do you care so much?"

Sora opened his mouth to answer, but no words came out. All he could think about was how he was intent on learning from Kairi, but he couldn't say that... "Well, my tutor said she would stop tutoring me if I didn't ace my next test."

Riku only seemed to hear one word in the entire sentence, "_S__he?_"

Sora realized his mistake, "Uh... I mean..."

Riku smirked, "It's a girl..?"

Sora raised his hands in defense, "It's not like that..."

Riku chuckled, "I'm sure it isn't. There's no way that's why it's so important that you impress _her,_ right?"

Sora scowled, "Shut up..."

"What's _her_ name, Sora? Is she pretty?" Riku teased.

Yes. She is. "_Her_ name is Kairi..." he growled.

"What's she look like..?" Riku was enjoying this far too much.

Sora stood and began to walk over to where his notebook was, so he could retrieve it, "I'm not doing this..."

Riku grabbed his wrist, "Come on, Sora... The first time you even remotely show interest in a girl and I'm not allowed to know about it? How is that fair?"

Sora pulled free of his grip, "I'm not interested in her... I just think that she'll be able to help me."

"I'm sure she will," Riku winked.

Sora clenched his fists, "With school! She'll be able to help me with school!"

"Whatever you need to tell yourself, man."

"Look, Riku... I'll admit. She's pretty. She's got these deep blue eyes with little flecks of purple... A-and this hair that's more red than the setting sun... But it's not about that... I just need her help so that I don't flunk out."

Riku just stared at him, "I see..."

"So, you believe me?" Sora asked hopefully.

"What color did you say her eyes were?" Riku asked plainly.

Sora raised an eyebrow, "Blue?"

Riku shook his head, "That's not what you said."

Sora thought back to his exact words and blushed, "Oh... W-well... I just meant-"

"Blue with little flecks of purple," Riku stated. "You had to be looking pretty hard to notice something like that, wouldn't ya?"

Sora's blush deepened slightly. Had he really been staring that intently at her? Why? What did it matter how blue or purple her eyes were? What difference did it make if her hair was red like a sunset or a wash-away marker? It didn't... Right?

Riku sighed contentedly, "Look, Sora... I'm not saying anything is wrong here. I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable. It's just something to think about is all." Sora didn't respond. After a few minutes of silence, Riku shrugged and began walking towards the front door, "Well, I better get going. If you want to win this girl over, you're gonna have to get at least 'A+'." He smirked as Sora scowled at him, "See ya later, Sora..."

Once Riku was gone, Sora didn't really feel like studying anymore. He knew it all by now anyway. So, Sora packed all of his stuff up in his book bag and went to bed. Tomorrow was indeed going to be a big day.

* * *

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Sora jumped out of bed and immediately went to the bathroom to get ready. He was dressed and ready to go by 7:13. He said goodbye to his parents and he was out the door. He was planning on going to see Beast today for a little while. Sora didn't need to study anymore, but he wanted to thank Beast for all the help. Sora arrived at the school at around 7:30 and made his way to the library.

He poked his head in to see that Beast was sitting at his desk reading something nonchalantly. He was wearing semicircle spectacles that made him look much older than he actually was. "Hey, Beast!"

The large man looked up and smiled, "For the last time, Sora. It's either Mr. Paige or Adam."

Sora rolled his eyes, "Whatever... I just wanted to come by and thank you for everything you've done for me these past couple days."

Adam smiled, "After all you've done for me, it was my pleasure. You're welcome anytime to study and read alongside me, Sora. You know that."

Sora smiled back, "Thanks... Adam." And with that Sora bid Adam Paige a farewell and headed off to his first class of the day, Math. He didn't have English until right before Lunch, so that he meant he still had a little ways to go until then. As Mr. Wise began to discuss dependent and independent variables, Sora sank in his seat, "Here we go..."

Two classes later, Sora entered Mrs. Paige's English classroom. "Hello there, Sora."

"Hey, Mrs. Paige!" Sora said cheerfully.

"I've heard from my husband that you've been working hard in preparation for our test today and I must say I'm both surprised and delighted to hear it." Belle Paige, formerly Belle Rose, was a fairly young woman with brown hair that was pulled back into a pony tail She also had soft, brown eyes that gleamed with curiosity and kindness. She had very delicate features and had a tendency to wear either blue or gold outfits. Today was a very casual blue dress with a white blouse underneath.

Some of the guys at the school used to always talk about how attractive she was, but then she started dating Adam. He was intimidating enough that most backed off. All except one jock named Gaston, but he eventually moved away for some unknown reason. Sora tried asking Adam about it once, but he simply shook his head and gave Sora a look that said, "Don't ask."

"Let's just say, I'm aiming to be a much better student this year," Sora responded.

"That's just great. I wish you the best of luck," Mrs. Paige smiled sweetly.

With that, she started to hand out the tests. The paper hit Sora's desk and he smiled confidently. This was gonna be great.


	8. Tension Resolved

It was Thursday afternoon, and Roxas sat alone at lunch. Not because he couldn't find anyone he wanted to sit with or because he was a self-proclaimed "loner", but for the simple reason that eating never really came across as a social event to him. It was a necessity for survival and thus should just be treated as a means to an end. And yet, the cafeteria was filled to the brim with students that were screaming and laughing in a way that could only be justified if a carnival was taking place. Which it wasn't...

Roxas was digging into the school's version of a "cheeseburger" when someone sat across from him: It was Sora, "Hey, Rox. How's it going?"

Roxas raised an eyebrow, "What do you want?"

Sora looked offended, "Well, excuse me... I just thought that I'd come over and say 'hi' to one of my oldest friends."

Roxas placed his burger down in front of him as he processed the situation. Why was Sora acting buddy buddy all of the sudden? "What's going on, Fair? This is the first time in the last thirteen years that we've known each other that you openly called me a 'friend'..."

Sora sighed with disappointment, "Alright, fine..." He gave a small smile, "The truth is that I realized how hard it must be for you this year..."

Roxas narrowed his eyes, "What do you mean?"

Sora shook his head, "You know what I mean... Without Axel around, you... Well, you seem even more brooding than usual."

Roxas rolled his eyes, "Look... I appreciate you trying to be nice and all, but I don't need someone holding my hand just because I don't have that flame brain around."

Sora nodded solemnly, "Whatever you say, man. Just know that if you need to talk about anything, I'm here for ya. Alright?"

Roxas was about brush it off, but then he figured something: Sora didn't have to do any of this. They weren't even really friends. He was doing this because he was nice. Maybe he even cared a little bit. Roxas even gave a small smile in gratitude, "Thanks, Sora... Maybe I will."

Sora flashed a wide grin in return and nodded, "No problem, Roxas." He stood. "I'll see ya around..." And he walked away. Roxas looked at his forgotten "cheeseburger". He grimaced and pushed it away. He swore he saw something with legs...

* * *

Naminé and Kairi were eating lunch at the usual table. Naminé was busy sketching and her food sat neglected in front of her. Kairi wasn't fairing much better as for whatever reason, she was nervous about the results of Sora's test. What if he got an 'A'? She would have to tutor him... No. There had to be a loophole. Her parents were both expert lawyers, so, of course, Kairi would have been smart enough to plant some kind of way out just in case... Right?

"Don't ya think, Kairi?" Kairi turned her head to the girl sitting next to her. It was Selphie. Selphie was okay. She was a pretty girl and she was actually really nice, but Kairi had never spent any time with her outside of school, so she didn't really consider her a friend.

"I'm sorry, what?" Kairi responded.

Selphie giggled, "I was just talking about how much easier it would be if we only had to take the classes we wanted to take. Like how they are in college!"

Kairi shrugged, "Well, we need to take a variety of classes so that when it comes time to go to college, we have a good idea of what we like and don't like. And besides, even in college-"

"Oh, blah, blah, blah!" Selphie laughed. "Jeez, Kairi. Do you have to be so smart all the time?"

Kairi's cheeks flushed slightly in embarrassment, "Well... I, uh-"

Selphie giggled again, "Never mind. I'm just teasing..."

Kairi looked over at Naminé, but she seemed to be really focused on her drawing. She had a dreamy expression on her face that was different from her normal expression while drawing. Typically, her face would get all scrunched up and her eyes would flit from place to place on the page as if analyzing every detail. Now, however, she looked like she was just casually and needlessly doodling, which is something that she never did.

"What are you drawing, Nami?" Kairi asked.

Naminé looked up and her face turned pink. She immediately closed her sketchbook, "Nothing..."

The girl sitting next to her shook her head knowingly, "It didn't look like nothing to me..." Her name is Olette and she had long brown hair that kind of fanned out at the shoulders. The rest of it tumbled down her back and curled down her front. She had light green eyes and she wore an orange tank top and cream colored shorts. Her favorite color was orange, so this was not an out of character outfit for her to wear.

Naminé blushed an even deeper shade of red, "You saw?!"

Olette giggled, "Maybe..."

"What is it?!" Selphie squealed. Selphie was a little nosy, so because she didn't know this particular bit of information, she was pretty intent on learning.

Olette smirked, "It was-"

"Nothing!" Naminé finished.

Kairi smiled, "Oh, come on, Nami... It can't be _that_ bad."

Naminé looked at all of them desperately. After it a while she realized they weren't gonna let it go and she sighed, "Fine..."

Selphie clapped her hands excitedly, "What is it? What is it?"

Olette answered, "It's a _boy_..."

Selphie gasped, "Oh. My. God..."

"It's not a big deal!" Naminé defended.

"It's _totally_ a big deal!" Selphie responded, "Who is he? Is he cute? What's he like? How do you know him? How long does it take for his-"

"Selph!" Kairi interrupted, "Calm down... If Naminé didn't even want us to know what she was drawing, what makes you think she'll want to talk about the subject of the drawing..?"

Selphie deflated, "Sorry..."

Naminé fiddled with her pencil sheepishly, "It's okay... I- I've actually been avoiding him..."

"What?" Olette asked with concern, "Why? Did he hurt you?"

"Is he a creep?" Selphie asked.

"No, no. Nothing like that. It's just... My dad caught me talking to him and he... Well, he doesn't approve. He says that he's irresponsible and that he sleeps in class all the time."

"Well... Does he?" Kairi asked.

Naminé nodded, "Yeah... Even in art class. He just sleeps through the entire period. That's why I approached him in the first place."

"So... If he's a bum who sleeps in class and your father doesn't approve, why are you sketching him?" Selphie questioned with a smirk, "Into bad boys, are we?"

Naminé blushed, "He's not a bad boy! He's just- I don't know... He's actually really sweet..."

"So, do you like him?" Olette was practically bouncing on her seat.

"I don't know..." Naminé answered honestly, "How could I? I mean... It's true. He does seem kind of lazy... And my dad might know more about him than I do. I barely know anything at all about him."

"So, what are you gonna do?" Kairi was suddenly very curious, "If he's only gonna bring you down, are you really gonna waste your time on him?"

Naminé looked surprised, "Waste my time? I don't think I'd be wasting my time. If anything, I could teach him... I could show him that there are more important things than what he already knows. And, who knows? Maybe I'll learn something from him, too."

Kairi wasn't sure what to say. She hadn't really thought of it that way. It may _not_ be a waste of time to work with someone who needed a bit of work. Kairi nodded coming to a decision, "Okay... Then, I think you should go for it."

Naminé was shocked, "Wait, what?"

Selphie nodded vigorously, "Yeah! Totally! This guy sounds awesome and you obviously like him!"

Olette agreed, "Even if you don't know everything about him, it's what you know deep down in your heart that counts."

Naminé giggled, "That's totally cliché."

"But it's true!" Olette defended with a smile.

Naminé held her sketchbook close to her chest, "Maybe..."

* * *

BRIIING!

The final school bell rang and Roxas was on his way to leave the school. Part of him wanted to go to the art room. He'd heard that the art club actually met on Thursdays and that's why Naminé had wanted to meet there the week before. Still, he couldn't go there. Especially when he knew that Naminé would be there. He'd already convinced himself that he didn't like her and wanted nothing to do with her. He couldn't possibly change his mind now...

"Roxas!" He spun around to see Sora jogging towards him.

Roxas sighed, "Hey, Sora... What's up?" Even though he'd decided to let Sora be nice to him, it didn't really make him feel any better having Sora try and talk to him all the time...

"Not much. You heading home?"

Roxas hesitated, "Yeah... I am..."

Sora raised an eyebrow, "Is everything okay?"

Roxas nodded, "Yeah. Sure. Of course. Why wouldn't it be?"

"Because people don't usually act so flustered and hesitant at simple questions..." Sora responded worriedly.

Was Roxas really that flustered? Why? Did it have anything to do with the fact that he couldn't think about Naminé without his heart beating twice as fast and his breath hitching at the image of her face? No... Impossible. "I'm not flustered..."

Sora pulled Roxas to the side, "Dude, I told you... You can talk to me if you need to. So, what's up? What's wrong?"

Roxas shrugged Sora off, "Nothing's wrong..."

Sora stared at him for a good minute or so, "Is it about that girl..?"

Roxas was surprised, "What?"

"You mentioned a girl the other night while we were texting... Does this have anything to do with her?" Sora had run through the options in his head. If it was something with his family, then Sora would know since Roxas's and Sora's families were so close. If it was something with Axel, Roxas wouldn't have been so nonchalant about him during lunch. That didn't leave many options, so Sora had to just go with his gut.

Roxas stared on for a few moments before nodding, "Yeah... I guess. Kind of."

"Who is she?" Sora asked.

Roxas shrugged, "She's just some girl who's in one of my classes."

"So, why is she bothering you so much? Is she annoying or mean or something?"

Roxas shook his head, "No... She's... She-"

Sora nodded understandingly, "So, you like her, huh?"

Roxas looked at Sora in confusion, "What?"

Sora sighed. "Look, man... I don't have a lot of experience with this kind of stuff, but if you find yourself flustered every time you see her or think of her... You probably like her. That's the only thing I can think of..." Roxas opened his mouth to respond, but Sora kept going, "Maybe you do. Maybe you don't. All I know is that there's no harm in it, if you do. You can ask her out, or you can just ignore it. Your choice." Sora shrugged, "I'll see ya, Roxas... Let me know how things go, will ya?"

Roxas stood there in shock. Sora... Sora Fair. Just gave him relationship advice. The guy had no record of even showing interest in a girl, let alone dating one... Maybe there was something going on with him, too... Aw, fuck it...

Roxas made a beeline to the art room. He peered into the room to see a similar situation as last time. Naminé was holding her sketchbook and her pencil and she was drawing something. Only she wasn't looking out the window like last time. She was just staring at the page with this small smile on her face.

Roxas braced himself and took a deep breath, "Hey..."

Naminé looked up surprised, "Hey..."

Roxas smiled sheepishly, "Sorry that I've kind of been avoiding you..."

Naminé smiled back, "I've kind of been doing the same..."

Roxas entered the room and sat down next to her, "So..."

Naminé smiled sweetly, "Yeah?"

Roxas fiddled with his thumbs and glanced over to where the guitar was. He stood suddenly and went to pick it up. He threw the strap over his shoulder and walked back, "How about I play you a song..?"

Naminé blushed, "O-okay..."

Roxas blushed slightly as he started to strum on the guitar. He knew this song pretty well, too. It had been on his mind a lot recently.

"It's really good to hear your voice saying my name.  
It sounds so sweet.  
Coming from the lips of an angel  
Hearing those words it makes me weak."

Naminé stood transfixed yet again by his voice. Was this..? Was this directed towards her? Did she make him feel this way?

"And I never wanna say goodbye,  
But girl you make it hard to be faithful  
With the lips of an angel."

Naminé stared at him for a few seconds, "Roxas, I-"

Roxas smiled, "I understand if you don't feel the same way about me... I just thought you should know... that I... You know, that I like you..."

Naminé smiled back, "I like you, too..."

Roxas almost fell over, "Wait... Really?"

Naminé giggled, "Of course... Why wouldn't I?"

"W-well, I... I'm weird and I'm lazy and-"

"Shut up..." Naminé laughed, "When I heard you sing that first song... Well, I knew how you felt. I've felt isolated for my entire life, too... My dad's great, but he's always very business-like. I haven't had many friends either. On top of that, the only way I could express myself was through my art."

Roxas chuckled, "It's the same way with me and my music..."

Naminé smiled cutely, "Well, we don't have to be alone anymore..."

Roxas shook his head, "No. No, we don't..." He grinned, "So... Naminé... Do you, uh, wanna go out with me?"

Naminé giggled, "I would love to."

The two spent the next half hour talking and laughing together until the time came where they had to leave. Naminé's father seemed a little surly that Naminé had been talking to Roxas again, but she no longer cared. Because she knew who Roxas was... And she really liked him.

* * *

**A/N: Cute Roxas and Naminé junk... Hope you liked it. If you didn't, I am terribly sorry... If only there was some place you could file a complaint or leave some constructive criticism... Ah, well... Seriously though, thanks for all the reviews so far, you guys. I really appreciate it. I'll try to keep updating as frequently as possible in the next few days, but I'm leaving for that whole college thing soon, and I'm gonna be running low on time. We're starting to pick up speed on things though, so stay tuned! Until next time... See ya!**


	9. All Bets are Off!

Sora couldn't sleep. Just like last Thursday night, he was wide awake in the middle of the night, and for the same reason, too. Not the exact same reason mind you, but the fact that he couldn't sleep because he was worried about a test again was unsettling.

After tossing and turning for a good hour, Sora threw his blankets off, sat up and looked out the window at the night sky. Because he lived on an island that didn't have much light pollution, he could see the stars easily. They lit up the sky in such a way that you could see just as well as you could during the day. It was really quite beautiful.

Still Sora wasn't one to sit and watch the stars. It just wasn't his style. He enjoyed the more lively aspects of life and even though the stars and the sky were beautiful, they just sat still. Sora liked watching the crashing waves or a blazing fire; things that are animated and powerful. Something about that image of life just made Sora happy.

The waves continued their gentle rhythm for awhile as Sora watched. They would flow out and kiss the shore just before retreating back into the endless sea. Sora looked out over the waves for a while before he noticed something. Someone was standing alone on the beach. Sora glanced at the clock. 1:37. Who would be up this late? Suddenly he was standing outside in front of his house and about to set out towards the beach.

Sora walked to the beach and kept his eyes on the figure the entire time. He wasn't sure why, but something about the person seemed familiar. He felt drawn to whoever it was. As he got closer, Sora noticed that it was a girl and a young one at that. She must have been around his age at the most.

Who was she? She stood alone and unmoving. Her figure seemed to sway with the wind as if she was just on the verge of existence. She had scarlet colored hair that flowed past her shoulders and rested gently on her upper back. She had a petite, but well shaped figure and her stature was confident and powerful. Sora had to know who she was.

Sora began to approach slowly and quietly in the hopes that he wouldn't startle her. She didn't appear to notice even when he was right behind her. Finally, before he even had the chance to speak, she turned to face him. She had a bright smile and indigo colored eyes. Looking at her, Sora felt a great warmth and comfort that couldn't be explained. He reached out to touch her and-

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"What?! Where?! Who?!" Sora awoke with a start and flailed his way out of bed. He hit the ground with a thud. "Goddammit!"

"Sora! Language!" Aerith called from down the hall.

"Sorry, Mom..." Sora responded as he rubbed his temple. That girl... It was slipping away from him now. What did she look like?

Sora looked at the clock. 7:03. As Sora began to wrestle with his own mind in an attempt to remember his dream, he also found himself wondering what had been real and what had been a dream. Whatever the case, the dream completely escaped him now. But whoever that girl was... She seemed amazing.

Sora got ready at a leisure pace. He was in no hurry that morning. Sure, he was going to find out the grade that decided his fate today, but rushing to school wasn't going to make third period come any faster. It was different with Math because it was first period, but English didn't come until later. And besides... This way he could actually talk to his best friend on the way to school.

After getting ready, Sora joined his parents at the breakfast table. His father was fast asleep in his bowl of mini-wheats while his mother read the newspaper as she munched on some toast. "Hey, guys," Sora greeted.

Aerith smiled, "Hello, honey. I'm happy to see you're in a better mood than you were first thing this morning."

Sora scratched his head sheepishly, "Yeah... Sorry about that. I fell out of bed this morning and it kind of hurt."

Before Aerith could respond the doorbell rang, "Sora, could you get that please?" Aerith asked.

Sora did as he was asked and answered the door. It was Riku, "Hey, Sora..."

Sora smiled, "Hiya!"

Riku was still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, "Why are you so cheery..?"

Sora shrugged, "I guess I'm just excited. Getting my test results back today..."

Riku raised an eyebrow, "Oh, yeah... How do you think you did?"

Sora smiled confidently, "I wouldn't be surprised if I got a hundred..."

Riku smirked, "Oh, yes... I'm sure. 'D' students become 'A+' students all the time after all..."

Sora scowled, "Hey! I've been working hard. What do you know anyway? It's not like your at the top of the class."

Riku shrugged, "I know that it's gonna take more than a couple weeks and some studying to completely change your academic merit."

"Whatever..." Sora huffed.

Riku clapped him on the back, "I'm not trying to bust your balls here, Sora. I just want you to realize that being an 'A' student is a lot of work. No one can just breeze through life that easily. You have to really apply yourself."

"I know that... I just happen to think I've done a lot of work. Is it so wrong to think that maybe it all paid off?" Sora pouted.

Riku smiled, "Of course not, buddy. If it makes you feel any better, I'm sure you got at least an 'A-'."

Sora sighed, "I guess... You're right. I can't just assume that because I worked hard that I deserve an 'A+'. I just really want this to go well."

Riku smirked, "And why is that again..?"

Sora whacked him over the head, "Shut up!"

"Sora!" said boy cringed, "No hitting..." Aerith stood in the doorway with her arms crossed.

"Sorry, Mom..." Sora mumbled while Riku snickered.

* * *

Sora and Riku ate breakfast at Sora's and then they both made their ways to school. They separated when it came time to go to their respective classes and the day officially began. Sora had to sit through two grueling hours of classes before English and by the time he finally got there, he was about ready to pass out. They were really piling it on today...

"Hello there, Sora..." Mrs. Paige greeted sweetly.

"Hey..." Sora mumbled on his way to his seat.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked clearly concerned.

Well, in Math today, Mr. Wise had Sora do twenty equations because he complained about not understanding them. By the end of it, Sora could recite the quadratic formula in his sleep, and he's sure he would start to... Then, in Gym, Mrs. Strife had everyone run laps and anyone who asked to walk or slow down would be forced to do push-ups and then have to start running again. One might think that since Sora knew Mrs. Strife personally, she would go easy on him, but no... He'd had to fifty push-ups and run twice as many laps as everyone else... Sora sighed, "No... Everything's fine. Just a little tired." Sora tried a smile and it kind of worked. At least enough to convince Mrs. Paige.

"Well, alright then." She turned to address the entire class, "Now, I've graded your tests and filed them into the computer. You all did very well. Some did better than others, but I don't think anyone scored below a B." Sora relaxed. At the very least, he was a 'B' student. "That is except for one."

Sora tensed, "And who was that?"

Mrs. Paige smiled sweetly, "Now, now... I'm not at liberty to openly discuss grades in front of the class. I'll just hand out the tests and you can all see for yourselves."

Sora sat completely still as Mrs. Paige handed out the results. He scanned the faces of those around him and most of them seemed pretty pleased with their grades. No sign that any of them got below a "B". What seemed like an eternity later, Mrs. Paige finally reached Sora and handed him his graded test. He took a deep breath and looked at his grade.

"I got an 'A+'!" Sora practically jumped out of his seat. He was laughing and cheering like an idiot, "Alright! Woo! In your face, Riku! HA!"

"Sora!" Mrs. Paige interrupted, "Calm down!"

Sora sighed happily, "Sorry, Mrs. Paige. Thank your husband for me, will ya? And thank you! This is awesome!"

She just smiled and nodded, "Of course, Sora..."

The rest of the day seemed to fly by and before he knew it, Sora was on his way to the library. He was still riding high on his success when Riku found him, "Yo, Sora!"

Sora spun to face his best friend, "Riku! You can suck it, my friend, because I totally got a hundred percent on my English test!" Sora flashed his graded test in Riku's face as proof.

Riku smirked, "I know, Sora..."

Sora deflated slightly, "What? Who told you?"

"No one told me. I was expecting it," Riku responded nonchalantly.

"Bullshit! You told me that I _wasn't_ going to get a hundred..."

"Of course I said that, stupid. I didn't want to steal your moment. If I had told you from the beginning that I thought you were gonna do as well as you did, you would have enjoyed it less. This way you got to enjoy it that much more because you were afraid you might not have done as well." Riku smiled, "You did great, man. And you did it all on your own."

Sora smiled back, "Thanks, Riku."

Riku nodded, "No problem... But I didn't just come here to congratulate you."

Sora tilted his head inquisitively, "What do you mean?"

"Well, I think I have the perfect plan for getting Xion to go out with me..." Riku smirked.

Sora rolled his eyes, "Oh, yeah?"

"Seriously, man... This is a big deal... I think I might really like her..." Riku admitted.

Sora was taken aback. Riku didn't normally admit that kind of stuff, "Really?"

Riku nodded, "Yeah... So, can you help me out?"

Sora smiled, "Just tell me what you need me to do..."

After they discussed the plan, Riku left and Sora walked the rest of the way to the library. Kairi was already inside when he got there. Sora smiled and entered, "Hey there!"

Kairi looked up from the book she was reading and raised an eyebrow, "You look pretty chipper..."

"You bet I do!" Sora responded happily.

"Shh..." Beast held his finger to his lips to show Sora that he was too loud.

He mouthed a "sorry" and walked over to Kairi with a smile still plastered across his face. Kairi's heart was beginning to flutter at the sight. Why? Why did he do this to her? And why was he so happy? Did this mean that..? No. Impossible. He couldn't have-

"I got an 'A+'! Check it!" Sora held up his test to show that he did, in fact, get an "A+" on the English test.

"Sora, that's great!" Beast bellowed.

"Shh... Adam, this is a library..." Sora teased, "but thanks... I couldn't have done it without you..."

"What?!" Kairi screeched before clearing her throat, "Uh, I mean... You got an 'A+'? Th-that's great..." What was she gonna do now? There was no way that she could actually follow through and tutor him. She felt dizzy as a result of his mere presence...

"You don't sound very happy about it..." Sora observed. His mood was deflating. So, it was true. She really didn't like him... What had he done wrong?

"N-no. I am. It's just... I, uh..." Kairi stuttered as she tried her hardest to look anywhere but at him.

"You hate me..."

Kairi looked at him in shock, "What..?"

Sora looked at her and sighed, "It's okay... I understand. I must come across as pretty obnoxious..." Sora wasn't sure why, but the idea that Kairi didn't like him made him really sad... It shouldn't. She was just some girl, right?

Kairi was starting to feel bad, "No, Sora... That's not it."

"Then, what is it?" Sora asked desperately, "What's the problem..?"

She didn't know what to say. She couldn't tell him how he made her feel. He would just think she was weird. No. Kairi would have to come up with something else, "I... I get sick really easily."

Sora raised an eyebrow, "What..?"

What?! "Yeah... I have an uneasy stomach. I can't do roller coasters or boat rides without getting sick." Where was she going with this..?

"What are you talking about?" Sora asked.

"Well, I have medicine that I can take for it at home and so I like to get home as soon as possible after school... Tutoring you would mean having to stay later..." It was a really lame excuse, but it was the only one she could think of.

"So, why did you sign up to be a tutor in the first place?" Sora asked confused.

"Well... I've been working on it and trying to overcome my sickness. I don't want to have to deal with it forever. I guess I was just hoping that it would be easier than it is. I'm having trouble, so part of me always just wants to go home as soon as possible." As Kairi got more comfortable with the lie, she became more confident.

So, she had a weak stomach..? Sora didn't believe it, but he'd play along, "Okay. So... What if from now on, we just study at your house? That way you could take your medicine as soon as possible and not have to be uncomfortable."

Kairi was shocked. The logic was flawless. She was trapped in her own lie... "Uh... Yeah. I guess we could do that."

Sora was a little surprised. He expected her to just admit to lying, but apparently not, "Alright then... Where do you live?"

Now, Kairi was even more embarrassed... "I actually live right across the street from you..."

Sora raised an eyebrow, "You're joking..."

She shook her head, "Nope. I saw you leaving the house a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't say anything." She blushed a slight pink color.

Sora blushed a little, too, "Oh... Well, that's great then. Really convenient actually..."

Kairi nodded awkwardly, "Yep."

"So, it's decided then..." Sora finished, "We start meeting at your house on Mondays."

Kairi agreed, but silently screamed. Now, this boy would be in her house and there was nothing she could do without admitting to her lie. This was gonna be rough...


	10. The Big Game

**A/N: Hey, guys. Thank you so much to all of those who reviewed and/or followed/favorited. I really appreciate it. Also, I'd like to apologize in advance because my updating is going to become a little more sporadic in coming days. I had to leave for college today and I've spent the last few days saying goodbye to all my friends. It's pretty sad, but we persevere! In any case, just bare with me as I make my adjustments to college life and I promise I will continue to update as frequently as possible. Thanks again, guys, and Enjoy!**

**PS I'm including historical facts about Earth's history, so we're just gonna pretend that the world of Kingdom Hearts and ours is one and the same. Alright? Coolio.**

* * *

It's been three weeks since Sora and Kairi agreed to hold their tutoring sessions at Kairi's home and things weren't completely awful... In fact, Kairi was actually starting to become more comfortable around Sora. He wasn't a jerk, or stupid, or really anything that she'd expected him to be. It was quite the contrary actually. He was nice and friendly and he was actually kind of smart. And he was a good friend.

Once she got past the fact that for whatever reason he sent her hormones all out of whack, she realized that he wasn't doing it on purpose. If anything, he was just trying to make her as comfortable as possible. Kairi couldn't help but feel a little guilty about lying to him about having a weak stomach, but to be honest, sometimes when Sora was around, her stomach did feel like it was about to burst from the nerves.

Meanwhile, Sora wasn't completely oblivious to his tutor's behavior. Most of the time she was normal and they could just talk without any complications, but then out of nowhere she would get really quiet and avoid looking at him entirely. He decided to just lend it to the fact that she had a weak stomach. Still, he couldn't help but feel that there was something else at play. He just couldn't figure out what...

In addition to that, when he was around her, he had this feeling that he was forgetting something. It was something that was just on the edge of his consciousness and it aggravated him to no end. It happened most often when he looked at her. He would find himself staring. Not because she was attractive(which she was), but because it would trigger this feeling in the back of his head and he would get distracted as he tried to remember.

"So, to conclude... The first world war might never have happened if not for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria," Kairi finished her ridiculously long lesson.

Sora just stared off into space, "How important do you have to be to be assassinated?"

Kairi looked at him in confusion, "What?"

Now, he was looking at her with a very serious expression, "Well, think about it. If you or I were killed, it would be called a 'murder', right? We're just civilians, so no one would say we were 'assassnated'. _But_ if the president or this archduke guy is killed it's an 'assassination'... Why? Where's the line of importance?"

Kairi stared at him in disbelief, "Is that all you're taking away from this..?"

"It's just something I've been wondering about..." he defended. "I was paying attention the entire time..."

"Oh, yeah?" Kairi challenged.

Sora smirked, "Ask me anything..."

"How did the Archduke die?"

"He was shot by one of a group of six assassins."

"Where were they at the time?"

"The capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo."

"What his wife's name?"

"Sophie."

"And her title?"

"Duchess of Hohenberg."

Kairi scowled at Sora. He had her... Or did he? "Where did the assassins get their training and weaponry from?"

Sora's face fell in confusion, "We didn't go over that..."

Kairi smirked, "It was in the book... If you'd read the chapter like you were supposed to, you would know."

Sora frowned, "Oh, come on, Kairi..."

Kairi stuck her tongue out, "I win."

Sora groaned, "Whatever... Can you just answer my question so I can go home?"

Kairi shrugged, "I dunno. Look it up."

"What do you mean you don't know? You're my source of information!"

Kairi rolled her eyes, "I don't know _everything_..."

"You sure act like it," Sora mumbled.

"What was that?" Kairi growled.

"Nothing!" Sora looked at his watch. 3:56. "Gotta go!" And he bolted out of the house.

Sora was walking across the street to his own house when he heard his name being called, "Sora!" For a second he was worried it was Kairi and she was about to rip his head off, but then he realized it was a man's voice and he relaxed, "Hold up!"

Riku came into view as he walked from his own house down the street. "Hey, Riku," Sora greeted.

Riku smiled mischievously, "Friday's the night... You have everything sorted out on your end?"

Sora immediately remembered the details of Riku's plan to ask Xion out and he smirked, "You know it. All you have to do is not screw up!"

Riku winked, "Don't you worry your messy, little head about that."

Sora's face became serious, "You really like this girl, huh?"

Riku smiled, "I really do, man... There's just something about her, you know?"

"Yeah. I do know..."

* * *

The week seemed to go by pretty quickly and before either of them knew it, it was Friday night: The night of the homecoming football game. Sora always went to the games to support Riku and Riku was definitely gonna need support tonight. It was the Destiny Island Oathkeepers against the Twilight Town Nobodies and everyone was on the edges of their seats.

"Touchdown, Oathkeeper!" The crowd erupted into a mix of happiness and disappointment from each side. The score was currently 30 to 17 with the Oathkeepers winning. There were just entering the third quarter. "And the field goal is good! 31 to 17 Oathkeepers!" More applause.

Riku in particular was doing great. It might have been because the entire team was working to make him look good, but aside from that Riku was also a really good athlete. He could run, he could catch, he could dodge and he was big enough that it was hard to take him down. Unfortunately, since he was so good offensively the team always seemed to suffer when they were on defense.

The game progressed and the Nobodies were starting to catch up. The score was 36 to 31 and the Nobodies had the ball. It was well into the fourth quarter and they only had three minutes left. The Oathkeepers just had to keep their current lead and they would be fine. Sora was leaning right up against the railing of the bleachers as he stared intently at the game. The Quarterback snapped the ball at a wide receiver and nobody could get to him in time as he crossed into the endzone.

"Touchdown, Nobodies! That brings the score to 37 to 36! Can the Oathkeepers regain their lead and gain victory, or will this homecoming be a sad one for the home team?" The announcer yelled dramatically.

"Come on, Riku..." Sora mumbled to himself.

"Invested in the outcome?" a voice said from behind him. Sora spun around to see a girl with short, black hair and blue eyes.

"Xion... How's it going?" Sora greeted casually.

"I'm good... It's Sora, right?" she asked hesitantly.

Sora nodded, "Yeah. How'd you know?"

"Friend of mine knows you. Says you're part of the reason he got together with his girlfriend."

Sora searched his memory for which out of his friends got in a relationship recently, "... Roxas?"

Xion nodded, "Yep."

Sora smiled bashfully, "Oh... I didn't do anything. I just told him to talk to her..."

Xion shrugged, "Sometimes that's all it takes."

"Fair enough."

"So, why are you so invested in the game?" Xion questioned.

"Oh... Uh, you know... It's homecoming... And, uh... Winning is good... And stuff..." Smooth, Sora... Very smooth.

Xion nodded thoughtfully, "Oh. Yes. Of course... Now, what's the real reason?"

Sora shrugged, "No idea what you're talking about. I just really want our team to win..."

"Would it have anything to do with that meathead you call a best friend being on the team?"

"Riku's not a meathead... In fact, he's not nearly as bad as you think he is. He's actually a very nice, respectful guy..." Sora defended his best friend while also trying to make him sound appealing to the object of his affections.

"Well, if you think so highly of him, why don't you two just find a dark corner and make out?"

Sora rolled his eyes, "I'm just saying that you have a biased opinion of him."

"And you don't?" Xion retorted.

"Fine. I do, but at least I don't just write people off right away and give them no chance to redeem themselves."

Xion's blood began to boil, "Who are you to judge me? You don't know what I've been through... Hell, I doubt you even know all the shit that your 'best friend' has done to women. You probably don't even fucking care..."

Sora raised his hands in surrender, "Think what you want... I'm just telling you what I know. Give him one chance and he just might prove you wrong..." At this, Sora walked away from Xion and went to the snack stand. He wasn't actually hungry, but he felt like he needed a dramatic exit... It totally worked...

Xion stood there thinking about what Sora had just said. Was it really wrong of her to just write him off based on what her sister had said? He might have changed... Her sister was certainly very biased in the situation so it wouldn't be out of the question to say that she could be wrong... No. No matter the bias there was no getting around the fact that he slept around and had no consideration for the feelings of the girls he left behind.

So, why was she still thinking about it..? There was no need for it. She should just completely forget about that determined look in his eyes as he told her that he was gonna prove her wrong. It should be irrelevant that his smile is somehow more beautiful than every other smile she's ever seen. None of that mattered. At all. So, she was going to stop thinking about it. Right now. Here we go. Right... Now... … Goddammit!

One minute left on the clock and the score was still 37 to 36 with the Nobodies winning. The Oathkeepers fumbled the ball and the Nobodies currently had possession. It wasn't looking too good... For some reason, Riku hadn't been on the offensive line when they had possession of the ball. Now that they were back on defense, Sora understood why. Riku was on defense. And Riku only ever played defense when the team was desperate.

The Nobodies were at the thirty yard line and it was first down. The clock started ticking down and the Quarterback launched the ball into the end zone. The receiver practically had it in his hands when suddenly another pair reached out and grabbed it right out from in front of him. Riku had intercepted the ball and he was currently dashing across the field.

The crowd was on their feet screaming and shouting for Riku. He bobbed and weaved his way through the mass of bodies that confronted him. He even jumped over a couple of members from the opposite team who tried to dive on top of him. He was at the fifty yard line and there were three guys on his tail. Riku pushed with all his might and pumped his legs as hard as he could. He put some distance between himself and his trackers as he ran past the twenty yard line.

The Nobodies were running in shambles as the rest of the Oathkeepers did everything they could to cover Riku. 10 yards. The crowd was screaming and rioting and Sora was halfway over the railing as he cheered. 5 yards. A big brute from the Nobodies jumped at Riku as he dove. The crowd fell silent as Riku hit the ground.

"... Touchdown, Oathkeepers!" The crowd exploded with screams and applause. Sora was yelling so loud his throat hurt. "And now... The man who's responsible for this great victory would like to say a few words..."

The announcer had been in on it the entire time and Sora and Riku knew that. Everyone else in the stadium, however, did not... The announcer was actually a close family friend of Sora's named Cid Highwind. A mic was brought out onto the field and everyone waited with baited breath to hear what the star athlete was about to say.

Riku approached the mic and smiled, "Hello everyone and thank you for coming out tonight..." The crowd cheered, but Riku had a lot to say so he quickly quieted them down, "It was a great game. Both sides did very well... You may or may not have noticed, but I was trying exceptionally hard this game." The crowd was dead silent, "Now, you may think it's because it's homecoming and because it's in the spirit of such an event to have the home team win, but there's more to it... You see... I have someone I'm trying to impress..." At this, many of the girls from both sides could be heard crying out, "A very special someone who I'd like to dedicate this game to. I also have a question for her... So... Without further delay..." Riku's hard was beating so hard, he could almost feel it in his throat. "Xion Kisaragi... Will you go to the Homecoming Dance with me?"

The crowd burst into applause and cries of surprise and disappointment from many of the girls. A chant began to rise up from the crowd, "Say 'Yes'! Say 'Yes'!"

Those that knew Xion were looking for her, the rest were looking around too, but with no clue what they were looking for... Sora made his way to where Xion stood. She was completely still and her mouth was hanging open. He held out his hand to her and she took it. He lead her to the field and before she knew what was going on, she was standing in front of Riku.

Riku stepped away from the mic and smiled at Xion, "So... What do you say?"

Xion wasn't sure what to say... What kind of person did something like this? It was super cheesy, but it was also kind of really awesome... She wasn't sure what to do... If she said 'yes', she'd be saying 'yes' to spending an entire evening with someone who had really hurt her sister. But if she said 'no'... Well, is that really what she wanted..? That's what she thought she wanted, but now... She wasn't so sure...

"C-can we talk in private..?" Xion whispered to Riku.

Riku smiled and nodded. He reached for the mic, "To be continued, folks! Thanks again for coming out. It's been fun!"

* * *

**A/N: So, this chapter and the next one were originally gonna be one whole one, but I ended up writing a lot more for this portion than I originally intended and it felt like this ending was just too good to pass up. So, you may hate me. You may not... You should leave a review and let me know! I'll get the next chapter up when I can... If there are riots in the streets before then, well... I'll just blame it on the purge... Until next time, See ya!**


	11. Cheesy Dances

**A/N: Hey, guys! Did you miss me? … No..? Okay... That's fine... I get it... Anyway! So, college is happening and I've been running around for past few days getting settled and figuring everything out. Auditions and Clearances and Books, oh my! Seriously though, I've had some free time, but not enough to actually sit down and write something... So, I'm sorry if you all hate me, but here we go... Enjoy!**

* * *

After his speech, Riku led Xion to one of the baseball dugouts that was near the stadium. The football stadium and the baseball fields were pretty close to one another so it wasn't too far a walk. Once they were alone, Xion did the thing most girls would do if a really attractive guy openly professed his feelings for her: She slapped him as hard as she could.

"OW! What the hell?!" Riku yelled as he rubbed his stinging cheek.

"What were you thinking?!" Somehow, she made the question sound more like a command which Riku wasn't really fond of.

"What do you mean..? I'm not allowed to tell you how I feel?" Riku replied.

"No! I mean... Maybe... No... You're not. You're... You're a..." Xion was stumbling over her words. Usually she was very collected, but her head was still spinning after everything that happened.

"I'm a what?" Riku asked coolly, "A womanizer..? A misogynist..? An asshole who's only interested in one thing?" Xion didn't respond. She didn't know how. "I'll tell you something... You can hate me for what I did to your sister. You can hate me for what I've done to every other girl I've dated... But you cannot hate me because of what you think I am... You don't have any idea... And I would happily explain it all to you, if you'd give me the chance..."

Xion stared at him for a few moments as she collected her thoughts. She sighed, "I can't... I can't do that..."

Riku nodded sadly, "I thought you might say that..." he turned and started to walk away, but he stopped before he left the dugout and turned back, "But just so you know... With you... I'm interested in so much more than just that one thing..." And he left.

Xion stood there silent. Her internal struggle becoming worse and worse with each passing second. What should she do? What if Yuffie was wrong? What if there was more to it than what she already knew? Should she give him a chance..? "Ugh! This sucks!" Xion yelled to herself before leaving the dugout and going home.

* * *

Sora wasn't sure why he was going to this stupid dance... He was never the dance type after all. But he'd promised Riku that he'd support him, and if that meant being his date in place of Xion... So be it... Sora straightened his scarlet red tie as he looked in the mirror. He wore a single-breasted black suit with a white dress shirt and polished black shoes. He didn't even bother trying to tame his hair, but he looked pretty good regardless.

"Oh, honey... You look _so_ handsome! Aw... Just one picture... Please?" Aerith pleaded.

Sora rolled his eyes, "Mom... This is not the first, nor will it be the last time I ever wear a suit. If you want to take a picture of me before a dance, at least let it be one where my date isn't my best friend..?"

Aerith pouted, but nodded, "Fine..." As Sora gave himself another once over the doorbell rang and his mother went to go answer it, "Oh, hello there, Riku. Don't you look dashing?"

Sora looked down the hall to see his silver haired partner in crime in a nice white suit with a black shirt and a navy blue tie. Sora did have to admit that he looked rather dashing... "Ready, dear?" Riku called mockingly.

"Just a moment... My hair is a mess!" They both laughed before waving goodbye to Aerith and leaving. They walked down the road on their way to the school and were silent for a little while. Sora looked at Riku to see there was a bit of sadness in his eyes, "Hey..." Riku looked up at him, "You alright?"

Riku gave a half-smile and nodded, "Yeah... I guess so... Just a little disappointed, ya know?"

Sora nodded in response, "It's alright, buddy. There are plenty of girls out there and most of them wanna go out with you anyway, so..."

Riku shook his head, "It doesn't matter..."

Sora looked at him sadly, "Riku..."

Riku held up his hand as a signal for Sora to stop talking, "Sora... I can't explain it... But... I really like this girl. And I don't know if I'm gonna be able to look at other girls the same way now. They'll just be... I dunno... lacking..?"

Sora wanted to make a comment about how unfair that seemed, but the the truth was that he understood. Once you meet someone that you feel right with, everyone else feels wrong... Not that... He'd found someone like that... That would be ridiculous. Anyway... "So, what are you gonna do?"

Riku shrugged, "Wait..."

"Wait?"

"Wait." He repeated more confidently.

"Wait for what..?"

"For her..."

Sora sighed, "Riku, you can't-"

"Sora... I can. And I will." Riku looked at Sora very seriously and Sora knew that Riku's mind was made up.

* * *

Upon reaching the school, they made their way to the gym, where the dance was taking place. It was kinda lame, but it was a low-budget school, so what else could they expect? They entered the gym and immediately their ears were filled with booming music and the chatter of students all talking over each other.

A couple of heads turned when Sora and Riku walked in, but most turned away. A couple of girls' eyes seemed to linger on Riku for a while before apparently remembering his declaration the previous night and turning away disappointed. "Punch?" Sora asked.

"Punch." Riku responded and they made a beeline for the punch bowl. Standing next to it were Tidus and Wakka, their childhood friends and fellow classmates. The two of them were best friends and were practically always together. Unless Tidus was with his girlfriend, Yuna of course.

Tidus was the shorter of the two, but he was very muscular and lean. He was a star baseball player and besides Riku was one of the most popular guys when it came to gaining girls' affections. Unlike Riku, however, he had a girlfriend to keep the fangirls at bay. He was a nice guy and pretty smart, too, but he was usually busy, so Riku and Sora didn't see him often outside of school.

Wakka on the other hand was taller and broader than Tidus. He was also muscular and a member of the baseball team, but he preferred the bachelor life. He was a free spirit who just liked to have fun and play baseball. He was either at home playing videogames, playing baseball with the team or hanging out with Tidus. He didn't care much for schoolwork, but he managed to get passing grades regardless.

Riku and Sora approached and before Tidus or Wakka could even notice their presence, Sora and Riku punched each of them in the arm really hard, "OW!" Tidus cried as he rubbed his arm, "Dammit, guys! That's my batting arm..."

"Don't you bat with both arms..?" Sora asked sarcastically.

"Shut up..." Tidus responded.

Wakka just laughed. He was better sport than Tidus, but he was clearly in pain, too.

"So, you want a drink?" Sora asked Riku casually indicating the punch bowl.

"Nah... That stuff looks gross. What even is it?"

"Dunno..." They were about to walk away when Sora suddenly got a very surprised look on his face as he looked over Riku's shoulder. "Uh, Riku..?

Riku raised an eyebrow at him and turned around. He was equally surprised, if not more, to see Xion standing there in a strapless black dress that ended just below her knees. She was blushing slightly, but maintained her cool, "So... What... Are we gonna dance or something..?"

Riku just nodded with the same dumbstruck look on his face while Xion smirked and led him onto the dance floor. Sora began to laugh at Riku's uncharacteristic behavior while Tidus and Wakka just stood there looking confused. "What just happened?" Wakka asked.

Sora was still laughing, "Riku's done waiting. That's what happened..."

Wakka looked at Tidus still confused, but Tidus just shrugged and smiled at their friend's good fortune. Soon enough Tidus was whisked away by Yuna who wanted to dance as well and Wakka started digging into the food that was provided. So, Sora stood alone as he watched his best friend and the girl he's been chasing dancing the night away.

Sora smiled at the sight and let out a sigh of contentment. "Looks like everything worked out, huh?"

Sora spun around to face the source of the voice and was again surprised to see Kairi standing in all of her glory. And Sora couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked. She was wearing a pink spaghetti strap dress that ended at the ankles. She had one hand placed on her hip as she leaned to one side and had a look of amusement on her face.

"H-hey, Kairi..." Sora sputtered out.

"Hey there..." She giggled. Kairi didn't know why, but for some reason she was feeling more confident around Sora. Maybe it was all the study sessions, or maybe it was because she knew that she looked amazing. However, part of her thought that it might have been because that feeling that she got whenever she was around Sora was starting to feel right...

"What are you doing here?" Sora asked stupidly.

Kairi rolled her eyes, "Baking a cake... What does it look like I'm doing?" It wasn't really an odd question. In fact, Kairi wasn't even entirely certain why she had attended. Naminé was going with Roxas, so Kairi had limited options when it came to people she could blow it off with. For once she was pretty on top of her work and didn't feel the need to study. And her mom bought her the dress in the hopes that it would get her out of the house. Which it did apparently.

Sora continued to stare at her for a few seconds before making a decision, "Come with me." Sora didn't really bother asking he just started walking and for some reason, Kairi decided to follow. They made their way to a door at the far end of the gym that Kairi never really paid much attention to before. Sora checked to make sure no one was watching them and opened it. He indicated that Kairi enter before sliding in the doorway himself.

Kairi looked at the door skeptically before following. The door led to a dark hallway that ended in some stairs. The door closed behind them leaving them in complete darkness. Before Kairi could react, she felt Sora's hand intertwine with hers leading her further into the darkness. The stairs went up and when they reached the top Sora let go of Kairi's hand. "Sora..?" She asked fearfully. She wasn't afraid of the dark, but I mean... Who _likes_ the dark?

"You're okay..." She heard Sora say up ahead. His voice was gentle and comforting and Kairi found herself calming at the sound. Just then, he opened a door and a light began to peek through the opening until Kairi was looking at the open sky. Sora walked out onto the soft gravel that sat atop the roof of the building and sat down as he looked out over the horizon.

Kairi looked around nervously before following, "Are we supposed to be up here..?"

"Well, the door wasn't locked..." Sora said nonchalantly. He'd done this a few times before with Riku, but he didn't think anyone else knew about it. Still, Sora felt comfortable sharing it with Kairi.

Kairi walked the rest of the way and sat next to Sora tentatively while being careful not to tear or wrinkle her dress. She looked out at the sky with Sora as the sun began to set. Kairi admired the colors of the sky as each one seamlessly blended into the other: Yellow and orange and red and purple, all across the sky like paint on a canvas. They stayed that way for a little while until Sora spoke.

"What's the difference between a rising and setting sun anyway?" Sora asked curiously as he stared at the beautiful sunset.

"Well, I suppose it all depends on your perspective. One person's sunrise is someone else's sunset after all. It just varies based on the way you're looking at it," Kairi answered thoughtfully.

"Well," mused Sora, "Then, this must be one, beautiful sunrise..."

A few moments passed and Kairi giggled, "That was so lame..."

"Oh, come on! I thought it was pretty deep!" Sora defended, but he was laughing as well.

Kairi smiled at him, "Sure..."

Sora smiled back. The colors were reflected in her eyes and they seemed to shine even brighter than the sun itself. As Sora sat there, he couldn't seem to tear his gaze away. Meanwhile, Kairi couldn't look away either. Sora's eyes were bluer than the sky as it is, but with the light from the setting sun... It was so beautiful.

A powerful force that was even stronger than gravity seemed to be pulling at both of them. It was drawing them towards each other. Their faces were just millimeters apart, their eyes shut...

"Sora!" The door leading to the roof flew open and Sora and Kairi jumped apart, "You up here- Oh..." Riku stopped in the doorway with Xion in toe. Riku had a smirk on his face, "Am I interrupting..?"

Both of their faces were a deep red, and Kairi was the first to speak, "No! Nothing... I was just, uh... Looking for my purse..."

"Did you find it?" Riku asked slyly.

"I, uh... Remembered I didn't bring it..." Kairi replied lamely. Why was she so bad at lying?! That's it. Time to bail. "I gotta go..." And before anyone could stop her, she had brushed past Riku and Xion and disappeared back into the building.

Sora sat confused and a little disappointed while Riku made his way over. "You alright, buddy?"

"Y-yeah... I'm... I'm good. I just..." Sora's brain was on the fritz. One minute he and Kairi were talking about sunsets and the next they'd... Well, they'd... They'd been about to kiss! Oh my God...

"You sure? I'm worried Xion and I might have accidentally ruined a special moment..." Riku's voice was less playful now.

"N-no... It's okay... I'm, uh... I'm gonna go home, I think. Kinda tired..." Sora stood and absentmindedly made his way back into the building as well.

Riku and Xion just stood there unsure of what to do. Xion looked at Riku with an unsure expression, "So... What just happened?"

* * *

**A/N: So, there ya go... Hopefully you guys didn't mind the wait for this chapter too much... Unfortunately, I'm gonna be pressed for time a lot because of school, but I'll still try and update as frequently as possible. At least once I week, I promise. Leave a review telling me what liked, hated, were indifferent about, whatever and hopefully I'll post something sooner rather than later. Until next time, see ya!**


	12. Crunch Time

**A/N: I'm on a roll... Don't get too excited. This won't be a daily thing. I just happened to have a lot of free time two days in a row. So, we'll see... Anyway. Thanks to those who reviewed. It's always appreciated. Let's get on with it!**

* * *

After an amazing night with Riku, Xion returned home. Riku offered to walk her, but Xion declined saying that Yuffie would be picking her up. Riku's face turned an ashy, white color at the mention of Yuffie's name, but Xion assured him that he had nothing to worry about. She gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek and smirked at the look on his face when she pulled away before leaving without another word.

She walked outside to see Yuffie already waiting in the car. She looked just as bubbly and energetic as ever. She was practically bouncing when Xion finally climbed in next to her. "Sooo... How'd it go?"

Xion smiled to herself, "Really well..."

"So, did you tell him how you felt?" Yuffie asked hungry for gossip.

She shook her head, "Didn't need to..."

"Oh, come on... After everything, that's it? No confession? No rushing to the airport to stop him? No hardcore make out session?" Yuffie stared at Xion incredulously and Xion just laughed.

"Thanks..."

"For what?"

"You know why..." Yuffie just grinned as Xion thought back to conversation that she'd had with Yuffie before the dance.

* * *

Xion was lounging on the couch in the living room when Yuffie came skipping into the room, "Hey, sis!"

Xion raised an eyebrow at her, "What's up?"

"When do you want me to help you get ready for the dance?" Yuffie asked expectantly.

"What dance?"

"The homecoming dance, silly... I can't go because I have work, but you should _totally_ go..."

Xion rolled her eyes, "Can't..."

"Why not?" Yuffie tilted her head in confusion.

Xion just shook her head, "Just can't. Sorry..."

Yuffie sat down on the small portion of the couch that Xion's body hadn't consumed and looked at her seriously, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing..." Xion mumbled.

Yuffie rolled her eyes, "Oh, come on... How stupid do you think I am..? Just tell me what's wrong so we can work it out."

Xion sighed, "You don't want to know..."

"Yes, I do..." Yuffie whined

"No. You don't... Trust me..." Xion warned in response.

"Try me. What's it about?"

Xion let out a long sigh before responding, "It's about Riku..."

Yuffie stiffened, "What about him..?"

"He... He asked me to the dance... If I go... He might get the wrong idea..."

Yuffie sat still thinking for a while, "Xion... How do you feel about Riku?"

Xion sat up so she could look at Yuffie more head on, "What?"

"How do you feel about him?" Yuffie repeated

"Well, he's a jerk, right? After what he did to all those girls... And-"

"That doesn't answer my question... How do you _feel?_" Yuffie repeated once again.

"I... I don't know..." Xion muttered.

Yuffie shook her head, "I think you do..."

Xion looked at Yuffie searching her expression for bitterness or anger, but she found none. Yuffie was completely passive, "I... I think I might... I might like him..."

Yuffie nodded, "I thought so..." She still gave away no sign of anger or disappointment which puzzled Xion. Wasn't this the same girl who just about broke down in tears about Riku last time they talked about him..?

"I'm sorry, Yuf..."

Yuffie shook her head and Xion was surprised to see a smile on her face, "Don't be... Xi... You can't control how you feel... It would be stupid of me to get mad at you for something like that. You know enough about this guy to make a decision on your own. You know how he's treated others... You know the risks... The question is... What do you want to do about it?" Xion was shocked to hear that her sister was so okay with this, but she had to think about her words, too. What did she want to do? If she was really honest with herself... She wanted to be with Riku... "So, I'm gonna repeat my question..." Yuffie continued without a clear response, "When do you want me to help you get ready for the dance?"

* * *

Sora and Kairi seemed to be in silent agreement that they would _not_ discuss the events of homecoming. It was just too weird to talk about... Unfortunately, that didn't stop them from thinking about it every single time they had to see each other... So, over the course of the next month or so, they met less and less frequently in the hopes that it would lessen the awkwardness and maybe these weird feelings that they had would go away.

It didn't work.

Finally, in December, they were forced to spend more time together because midterms were coming up and they both needed to study. And since Kairi was technically still Sora's tutor, she had to help him if necessary. So, they sat in Kairi's living room and didn't speak a word to each other as each one read over their notes or looked something up in a textbook.

One day in particular, while Sora was studying Math which to this day was his hardest subject, he couldn't figure out how to solve an equation. He'd read over his notes and checked the book, but nothing seemed to work... So, regrettably and reluctantly he turned to Kairi and said, "Hey. I, uh... I need your help with this..."

It wasn't uncommon for Sora to ask for help even in these troubled times that they were in. However, in this instance, they did something they usually tried to avoid at all cost. They made eye contact. They stood frozen like that. Their minds were taken back to the moment when they just sat on the roof of the school and stared into each other's eyes. It was nice... The moment seemed to last forever until finally Kairi tore her eyes away from his and looked at his book. Her cheeks were very pink, but she tried to hide it by looking away from Sora.

"God... This sucks..." Sora groaned as he slumped onto the couch.

"What sucks..?" Kairi asked innocently.

"You know..."

She shook her head, "I'm afraid I don't."

"You're telling me you really don't remember what happened at homecoming..?" She didn't respond, "You don't remember how we almost... You know... kissed..?"

Kairi suddenly turned to look at him, "We did _not_."

Sora was taken aback by her response, "Well, I mean... I thought we were going to..." He said quietly.

Kairi's eyes changed from ones of fury to guilt, "Sora... I mean... Maybe we were... But we shouldn't..."

Sora sighed, "I know. I wasn't saying that. I was just saying that we can't ignore the fact that it happened..."

Kairi nodded slowly as he contemplated his words, "You're right..." She sighed, "It's just _weird_, you know? I mean... You and me... _Kissing? _How weird does that sound?" She tried to make it sound ridiculous, but secretly she didn't think it was ridiculous at all... But there was no way in hell she was going to say that...

"Yeah. I guess..." Sora agreed. Though he didn't feel the same way at all. He kind of liked the idea of kissing Kairi... He would never admit to it, but he thought that she was beautiful and he would be lying if he said that he wasn't disappointed when Riku interrupted them that night.

"So, why don't we just agree to never let something like that happen again and go back to normal..?" Kairi said halfheartedly.

Sora nodded, "Okay..."

So, they did. They went back to normal. They joked and bantered and Kairi helped Sora with his work. All the while, they both secretly harbored feelings for the other. And both were too scared to say anything...

* * *

A week later, Sora walked out of his math class triumphant, "I totally _owned_ that test! That midterm was my bitch!"

"It was what, Mr. Fair?" Sora heard the voice from behind him and recognized it immediately: Mr. Wise.

Sora turned to face the older man awkwardly and forced a smile, "Uh... I just meant that, uh..."

Mr. Wise smiled, a rarity, but still nice, "I know what you meant, Sora. I'm glad you're so confident and it certainly has been a pleasure watching you improve in my class."

Sora smiled genuinely, "Thanks, Mr. Wise." His teacher nodded and left, leaving Sora so he could continue to celebrate.

"My BITCH!"

The rest of the midterms seemed incredibly easy after that. History? Please... It's all in the past. English? None of it was Greek to Sora... Chemistry? Puns are hard, but he _aced_ that shit! Even his Music Exam went off without a hitch. He'd been playing piano as often as he could in the Secret Place, so during his exam, he just played one of the songs that he loved playing and it went perfectly. He didn't even need Kairi's help with that one.

By the end of the day, Sora confidently strode out of the building without a single care in the world. Just one more day before Christmas Break and then he wouldn't have to worry about school for a whole two weeks! He would hangout with Riku and eat tons of food because why the hell not? It was gonna be great... He might even go to Roxas's New Years Party at his dad's beach house.

Now, when he said "beach house", he didn't just mean a house that was near the beach. Hell. Sora's house was less than a hundred feet from the beach. No. He meant a two story, sunbathed, indoor pool carrying house that sat right on the edge of the coast with it's own personal beach as it's backyard. Why did it need an indoor pool if it was right next to the beach? Who the hell cares? It's awesome!

Whereas Sora's father, Zack, had decided to just relax and be a stay at home dad for Sora, Roxas's dad and Zack's partner, Cloud Strife, made a lot of money by coaching MMA fighters. One of the guys that he worked with was one of the best and so Cloud's cut of the winnings earned him a lot of money. So, he got to do something he enjoyed and make a lot of money doing it without having to worry about too many people being in his business about it. It was a good deal.

Sora headed home and proceeded to brag to his father about how confident he was about his midterms. His father just nodded along with an amused look on his face while Sora went on and on about how he _totally_ crushed his tests and whatnot. Zack Fair really was proud of his son, but he couldn't help but wonder if he would ever stop talking... "- And I was like... 'The answer is obviously C' so I marked it... And then on the next problem..." Zack continued to nod and sighed...

* * *

The next day, Sora didn't even bother to make himself look good when he went to school. It was only a half-day and none of the teachers cared what they did anyway. They would be out before lunch and Sora could just sit around at home without a care in the world. Around eleven, about a half hour before they were dismissed, Sora was wandering the halls aimlessly. He didn't feel like just sitting around the entire time and Mr. Merlin didn't mind as long as he didn't get into trouble.

Without realizing it, he ended up at the library. Sora smiled to himself as he thought back to how hard he had worked to get an "A" on that first English test and how Adam had helped him do it. Sora walked into the library and looked around for his librarian friend. He heard the voice before he saw the man, "Ah, Sora! It appears that there's _two_ students who decided to pay me a visit..."

Adam came into view as big and bulky as ever and smiled at Sora who just raised a brow at him, "Two?"

As if in response, Kairi appeared from behind the bookshelf as well and smiled at Sora, "Well, hey there, stranger."

Sora suddenly felt very insecure about his attire. He was wearing sweatpants for fuck's sake! "Hey, Kairi... What are you doing here?"

Kairi raised an eyebrow and smirked, "I'm not allowed to hangout at the library?"

"Well, no... I mean, yes. You _are_ allowed. I just meant..." Sora was fumbling for words which just caused Kairi to giggle.

"Calm down, Sora... I'm just teasing..."

Sora sighed, "I know... You can't just sneak up on me like that though. Completely throws me off guard..."

Kairi scoffed, "I was here first... If anything you sneaked up on me!"

"Did not! I was just coming to see my old friend, Adam, and thank him once again for helping me!"

"Oh, yeah? Well, I just happen to like books and Mr. Paige was just telling me all about how he helped you... You never told me you had help!"

"So, what? You just said I couldn't have help from _you_... I followed the rules and won, so there..." He stuck out his tongue.

Kairi rolled her eyes, "You're ridiculous..." But she smiled regardless.

Sora smiled back and they were quiet for a little while until Adam broke the silence, "Uh... Did you two wanna be left alone, or..?"

"No!" They both exclaimed with tinted cheeks.

Adam laughed, "Alright... Alright... This is still a library. Keep your voices down. I have to finish putting some of the books back in their places. You two, try not to make too much noise with... Whatever it is that you two do when you're alone together," he said slyly as he walked away leaving a blushing pair of teens.

They were quiet for a while, neither one sure what to say. Even without people teasing them, they were still conscious of their feelings. It was just easier to ignore when no one else brought it up. Sora was about to just say goodbye and leave when Kairi spoke up, "So... I got you something..."

Sora looked up at a blushing Kairi in surprise, "You what?"

"Well, I didn't get it... I made it, but... Anyway... It's not a big deal. I just thought you would like it and I wanted you to have it to show that even though we got off to a rocky start, we're friends now... Right?" She was kind of rambling which Sora thought was absolutely adorable.

He couldn't keep the smile off his face as he said, "Right. Now, let's see it."

She continued to blush as she reached into a small bag and pulled out a small star shaped charm that was yellow in the middle and pink at the tips. It appeared to be made of shells of some kind, "It's a Wayfinder... It's supposed to bring good luck to those that keep it with them... Especially if it was given to them by someone who they have a connection with... It's, uh... Made of Thalassa shells, so... Here." She placed it in his hand.

Sora just smiled. It wasn't his normal cheesy smile. It was more of a gentle smile. "Thanks, Kairi... This means a lot to me..."

Kairi continued to blush as she smiled back, "No problem..."

Adam watched them as he put the books away and he shook his head. "Those two have no idea..."

* * *

**A/N: This was fun! I gotta personally thank blissfulnightrain for the help. I appreciate all of my reviewers, but you've been a lot of help. So thank you... As for everyone else... Let me know what you guys think in a review! I always look forward to reading them and don't be afraid to leave a bit of criticism either... I'm always looking to improve. Thanks, guys! Until next time, See ya!**


	13. The Resolution

**A/N: Hey, guys. Even though I had time yesterday to write... I was severely lacking motivation. As always my motivation is directly linked to the amount of reviews I get on each chapter. So... I would greatly appreciate if you guys would just leave a couple of comments(Bad, Good, completely random and having nothing to do with the story, etc.). Thanks in advance and Enjoy!**

* * *

"Sora! It's Christmas! Get your lazy butt out of bed!" Zack's voice echoed through the house and released Sora from sleep's embrace... Why..? He had been sooo comfortable. Sora literally rolled out of bed and onto the floor before army crawling his way to the bathroom. "Sora!"

"I'm up!" Sora yelled back. Sora took care of his morning urination and proceeded to walk down the hall to the living room where his parents were.

"Morning, sleeping beauty..." Zack mocked when his son entered the room. He had an amused smile on his face as Sora slumped onto the couch and nearly fell back asleep.

"Sora, honey! Open your presents!" Aerith was as cheerful as ever and her excitement made Sora smile.

"Alright, Mom... Gimme a second." Sora reached over and grabbed the nearest present with his name on it. It said "To Sora From Mom" with a little heart next to her name. Sora rolled his eyes at his mother's antics and opened the box. Inside was a black jacket and a pair of baggy black shorts. "Clothes, Mom?" Sora joked.

"Hey! I just thought your wardrobe could do with a little touching up... That's all." She pouted at Sora while Sora and Zack chuckled.

"Mom... Most of my wardrobe consists of clothes that you bought me last year..." Sora laughed.

"Well... Then, they're at least one year out of style..." Aerith replied stubbornly.

Sora shrugged and picked up his next present. "To Sora From Dad" Sora opened up the small package to find a necklace. It was a simple chain linked necklace with a crown attached. "Whoa. This is nice." Sora smiled as he picked it up out of the case, "But what made you decided to get it?"

Zack shrugged, "I dunno. I just saw it and thought you might like it. Why don't you put it on?"

Sora nodded and slipped the chain over his head and let it dangle around his neck, "This is awesome. Thanks, Dad!" Sora gave both his parents a hug and apologized to his mother for teasing her. She just laughed, but Sora knew that meant that she hadn't even taken offense in the first place which was good.

Aerith went into the kitchen to start cooking Christmas dinner and Zack beckoned Sora to him. Sora cocked an eyebrow at his father, and approached warily, "What's up?"

Zack grinned mischievously and whispered, "I'm glad you liked the necklace, but that's not all I got you."

Sora tilted his head curiously, "What do you mean?"

Zack looked over his shoulder to see his wife completely oblivious to their conversation before returning his attention to Sora, "I didn't want to give it to you in front of your mother because she might not have liked it..." he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black object, "Here."

Sora accepted and examined it. His eyebrows rose in surprise as he realized what it was, "Is this-"

Zack nodded, "It is. It's a switchblade. I had one of these with me at all times when I was with SOLDIER and they really came in handy. You just gotta flick this little switch here..." he indicated a small switch along the handle, "And the blade comes out. Just be careful. These things are dangerous. And never, ever use it to hurt anyone... Got it?"

Sora nodded seriously, "Of course not, Dad. I would never..."

Zack smiled and nodded back, "Good."

The rest of day was very relaxing and when the three of them sat down for dinner they were content to just sit and eat. They chatted a bit here and there, but for the most part, they remained quiet. Just sitting with his family was nice, Sora thought. He enjoyed moments like these.

* * *

A little less than a week later, and New Year's Eve was upon them. Sora and his parents split up for the evening. His parents and Roxas's parents went out on the town, so they could hangout with their adult friends and left the children to have a party at the Strife house. As mentioned before, this house was awesome... Built in speakers, cabinets stocked with chips and soda and enough room for two full grown elephants to break dance meant a really awesome party.

All of Sora's friends were there. Roxas had invited Sora, Xion, Axel and Naminé of course. Xion had dragged Riku along, which Sora was grateful for and Naminé had insisted that Kairi be allowed to come which Roxas was perfectly fine with.

Sora knew Axel. He was a cool guy... Well, not cool. More like scorching... See... Axel had this thing with fire where he... He liked to start them. In any case, he was good guy and he was Roxas's best friend. He was home from college, so Roxas didn't hesitate to invite him to the party. Axel was much taller than the rest of them, except maybe Riku, with long, spiky red hair that made him like a red sonic the hedgehog. He also had mischievous green eyes and small black tattoos under each eye.

Tidus, Wakka, Selphie, Olette and these two other guys Hayner and Pence had come along to the party, too. Apparently, Roxas knew Olette, Hayner and Pence pretty well, but never mentioned them. Selphie had invited herself because she knew most of the people in attendence anyway and Tidus and Wakka had decided to come when they heard that Sora and Riku would be there.

Hayner was a nice guy who Sora had only spoken to on occasion. He had blonde hair that had kind of a wind swept look as it flowed backwards. He had brown eyes and was an average height. Pence was a little shorter and a little rounder than the rest of the people at the party. He had dark hair that he kept up with the help of a headband. He also had brown eyes which were usually fixed through the lens of his camera. He was a photographer for the school newspaper. Apparently, Hayner, Olette and Pence met Roxas one summer when Roxas went on vacation to Twilight Town. They all moved to Destiny Islands shortly after that and had settled into the island life pretty easily.

Tidus brought along his girlfriend, Yuna, who was quickly followed by two more girls, Rikku and Paine. Yuna had brown hair that reached the base of her neck and gentle blue eyes to match. Rikku had blonde hair that was put up in a pony tail and hung around her face and energetic brown eyes. Paine had short black hair and dark brown eyes that warded off anyone with a weak resolve. The three of them were together about as often as Wakka and Tidus. Of course, there was the clear exception of the time Yuna and Tidus spent alone, but aside from that, the three of them were inseparable.

By the time everyone had finally arrived and settled in, there were way more people than Roxas had originally intended. However, he was plenty distracted by Naminé so he couldn't really find the time to care.

As Sora wandered around the area he watched everyone else interact around him. Selphie was complaining about Riku to Olette, Rikku and Paine. Since, Rikku and Paine had both been scorned by Riku in the past they were anxious listeners, but Olette seemed far more interested in Hayner who was on the other side of the room. Hayner on the other hand was busy laughing with Wakka and Pence over something that Riku said.

Tidus and Yuna were nowhere to be found, but Sora just assumed that whatever it was that they were doing was probably none of his business anyway. Xion and Axel were talking to Roxas who stood there awkwardly while a clearly frustrated Naminé stood close by. Sora chuckled to himself as he realized that the pair of them must have _interrupted_ something and were now milking the situation for what it was worth.

Finally, Sora's eyes settled on Kairi who sat alone on one of the couches. She seemed to be doing the same thing as Sora as she scanned the crowd. There was a drink in her hand that she sipped absentmindedly and she was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even notice when Sora sat next to her, "Hey there."

Kairi jumped at the sudden presence, "Hey!" She smiled, "Nice party, huh?"

Sora chuckled, "Yeah... It's fun... There's a lot of people though..."

Kairi nodded, "Yeah... I thought it was just gonna be a few of us. Like Me, Naminé, Roxas, Axel, Xion, Riku..."

"And me?" Sora finished.

Kairi smiled, "Of course..."

The two of them sat and talked for a while. They observed the crowd and made jokes about each group and their interactions. They even mused about Tidus and Yuna's location well after the couple reappeared. They didn't look terribly suspicious. No one's hair was messed up and everyone's clothes were unwrinkled and present. Eventually, things started to wind down and people began to leave.

The first to go were Selphie, Tidus, Wakka and the Gullwings as Sora had referred to them. Seeing as none of them had been invited anyway, no one was really broken up about it. The next two to go were Olette and Hayner. Olette had finally found the courage to talk to Hayner and they left holding hands. Pence wasn't far behind, but it was obvious that the other two weren't paying much attention to him at all.

Finally, it was just the seven of them: Sora, Riku, Kairi, Xion, Roxas, Naminé and Axel. Though Naminé and Roxas disappeared at some point as well. They couldn't have left seeing as it was Roxas's house, but after Xion and Axel had finished talking to Roxas, they seemed to have vanished into thin air. No one decided to question it though and Sora certainly didn't want to be "that guy".

Axel and Xion were now engaged in what appeared to be a very heated debate about who would in a fight: Superman or Goku. Meanwhile, Kairi and Sora were discussing the physics of Thor's hammer, "The question isn't whether you have to have the strength of a god to pick it up... It's whether you're pure of heart..." Sora explained.

"That's bullshit. It's a hammer. Who cares if you're pure of heart? It's just really fucking heavy, so you need to have God-like strength to pick it up," Kairi countered.

Sora held up his hand, "Kairi please... You may outclass me on everything academic, but in this... I know what I'm talking about..."

Kairi scoffed, "Excuse me... I think I'm smarter than you in not only this, but in every nerd related field you could possibly come up with!"

"Oh, yeah?" Sora challenged.

Kairi smirked, "Try me..."

Sora was about to do just that when a hand rested on his shoulder. He looked up to see the face of his best friend, "What?"

Riku nodded towards the back door, "Come with me..."

Sora raised an eyebrow, "I'm kinda busy..."

"This is important." Sora glanced at Kairi who shrugged. So, without another word, Sora rose and followed Riku through the back door.

"Alright, what's this about..?" Sora asked curiously.

Riku shook his head, "Come on, man... You know what this is about..."

Sora just stared at the silver haired man in front of him in confusion, "I'm afraid I have no idea..."

Riku sighed, "Kairi, man..." Sora stiffened, "When are you gonna ask her out?"

Sora shook his head, "It's not like that..."

Riku rolled his eyes, "Shut the hell up... You guys are so obvious it's not even funny."

"Riku..." Sora started.

"I'm serious... It's not funny anymore..." Riku's face did look quite agitated, "Fucking ask her out already. I'm getting annoyed."

Sora's mouth hung open as he looked at Riku, "What makes you think she's interested..?"

Riku smirked, "So admit that _you're_ interested..?"

Sora sighed, "I never said that..."

"Sora..."

"Well, shit, Riku... You said it was obvious... So, why are we even discussing this? If it's so obvious then how doesn't _she _know? Why do I have to make a move at all..?" Sora's voice was still quiet out of fear that Kairi might hear them, but it was intense all the same.

Riku pressed his lips together into a thin line and thought carefully. After a few moments he responded, "Because if you don't... You might lose her..."

Sora's heart clenched at the words. He didn't realize the full extent of his feelings until that moment. He had to do something... And fast... But he wasn't sure what... "What do I do?"

Riku smiled, "Dude... It's New Years... When the ball drops... Kiss her."

Sora's face went red, "S-so soon? But... This is moving really fast, Riku... I don't know if-"

Riku laughed, "Calm down... If you're not comfortable making your move yet... You can wait. Just don't wait too long or the opportunity might just slip away. Got it?"

Sora nodded, "Yeah..."

* * *

Kairi sat alone on the couch now. Riku had just swooped in and stole her conversational partner. Naminé was still nowhere to be found and Xion and Axel had almost reached the point of throwing things amidst their debate. "SUPER SAIYIN FOUR GODDAMMIT!"

Kairi shook her head in amusement. She was more of a Marvel girl, so she wasn't concerned with any debate involving a DC character. Still, she had to admit that Goku would probably kick Superman's ass. She glanced at the backdoor yet again as she waited for Sora to return... Why did she feel so... Alone? There were still people around... The only thing that had really changed is whether or not Sora was there...

She found that to be true in most cases. Whenever their tutoring session would end or they ran into each other in the halls, but had to keep moving; The moment Sora's presence was gone, Kairi just felt so sad... So... Empty. Wait. What was she talking about? She felt fine... She didn't need Sora around to feel happy... It was just... Easier... With him around. Stop it!

"Kairi?" I mean... Come on! He's just some guy... "... Kairi..?" I mean sure... He's cute, and nice, and funny... "Kairi!"

"Huh?" Kairi jolted to the sound of Sora's voice. He stood next to her with a look of mild concern on his face.

"You alright?" Sora raised an eyebrow at her.

"Y-yeah... Just kinda spaced out, sorry..." Kairi tried a smile but it came out forced.

Sora furrowed his eyebrows, "What's wrong?"

Kairi blushed slightly at his concern, but averted her gaze. What was happening? "Nothing. I was just thinking about some things..."

"What kinds of things..?" Sora asked curiously.

"Don't worry about it..." Kairi snapped more harshly than she meant to. She looked up to see a look of hurt on Sora's face and immediately felt guilty... "I'm sorry... I've just got a lot on my mind, and I really don't want to burden anyone with it."

Sora's face scrunched up as he thought. Kairi could practically see the gears turning in his head. After a little while he nodded to himself, "Okay..."

Kairi cocked an eyebrow at him, "Okay..?"

Sora smiled and nodded again, "Yep. If you don't wanna talk about it. You don't have to..."

Kairi was surprised at Sora's sudden mood swing, "Oh... Uh... Thanks, Sora..."

Sora smile changed into a smirk, "On one condition..."

Uh, oh... "What do you mean..?"

Sora shrugged, "Well... I'm not gonna pester you and ask you what's wrong, but you gotta do something for me..."

Kairi was about to ask what when she started hearing counting, "Ten! Nine! Eight!" Everyone was gathered around the plasma screen on the wall as the ball dropped. How had Kairi not even realized what time it was? "Seven! Six! Five!" Roxas and Naminé had even reappeared. They didn't appear to be in too much of a physical disarray, so Kairi decided not to kill Roxas... Yet... "Four! Three! Two!"

"You have to kiss me to start the New Year!" Kairi heard Sora say from behind her. She was shocked and a blush flashed across her cheeks. Wait, what?!

"One! Happy New Year!" Kairi's body acted on its own and did something that Kairi had secretly wanted for a while now...

She kissed Sora.

* * *

**A/N: Woo! This one practically wrote itself... Honestly... I wasn't even entirely sure what was gonna happen until I wrote it down... Let me know what you think in a review! Please..?Things are about to get interesting... You know... If they weren't... Already... Ahem... Until next time, See ya!**


	14. Romantic Tension 2

**A/N: Hey, guys... Not much of an intro. Thanks to my reviewers... My amount of reviews just about doubled because of a certain KittyKat1217, so thanks so much for that. Make sure you guys continue to review and I'll keep on laying out chapters for ya. Enjoy!**

* * *

"Yeah, Sora! Get SOME!" Axel hollered from the other side of the room. The kiss had gone on a little longer than Sora or Kairi had intended. In fact, the moment their lips came into contact with each other the entire world seemed to fade away. Time stopped and all that existed were the two of them in that single moment... Or so they thought. In reality, many, many moments had passed and there were five other people in the room watching them.

Sora and Kairi jumped apart at the outburst blushing like fools. Xion was attempting to hide her laughter from Axel's comment and epically failing. Riku and Roxas were both smirking knowingly and Naminé was practically jumping up and down in excitement. "Oh, you guys!" She squealed.

Sora was speechless. Exceedingly happy, but speechless. Kairi on the other hand, "I have to go..." She chanced at glance at Sora who looked confused at her words... And maybe a little bit hurt, "M-my stomach... Is bothering me..." She lied and she bolted.

Sora's eyes narrowed. At this point, he knew that her "weak stomach" was just an excuse for her to get out of being with him. And the fact that she would go so far as to kiss him... They kissed, Goddammit! And still, she was just gonna ditch him with that excuse? He shook his head angrily. He was done. Sora walked off seething in the opposite direction.

Naminé hurried after Kairi while Riku shook his head and tailed Sora. Axel just stood there with Xion and Roxas confusedly, "Wait... I'm confused... Sora is or isn't getting some tonight..?" To which the other two shook their heads and comforted the whimpering red head.

"Kairi..." Kairi didn't slow at all at Naminé's words. "Kairi!" Naminé finally caught up to the red head and grabbed her shoulder.

Kairi turned around, but didn't say anything. Her thoughts were flying at million miles per hour and she was having trouble focusing.

"What's wrong?" Naminé asked with concern blatant on her face.

"I... I don't know what happened... I just... He told me to kiss him... And I did," she was very flustered.

Naminé couldn't contain her excitment, "He asked you to kiss him..? Aww... Kairi! He likes you!"

Kairi shook her head. "No! We just got caught up in the moment... It's New Years... People kiss on New Years. He was standing next to me... I could have just as easily kissed Axel!" Kairi reasoned.

Naminé's expression fell and she sighed, "Kairi... Why can't you just see that you like each other..? It's _so_ obvious and I think you guys would be great together..."

"Because... Because I can't... I can't let myself be distracted... I have to focus on my schoolwork. If I want to be a lawyer like my parents-"

"But do you..?" Naminé interrupted suddenly. At this point, Naminé was getting frustrated with Kairi constantly running away like this. She especially understood how Sora could storm off the way he did.

"What..?"

"Do you want to be a lawyer? Is that really what you want? Or is that what you think _they_ want..?"

"I..." Kairi didn't know what to think. Too much was happening all at once. She may or may not like Sora which could possibly interfere with a career choice that she could possibly want to dedicate her life to, but she's not sure because she's never really had to make her own decisions before... After a few minutes of thinking she looked at her best friends and repeated, "I have to go..." And left. Naminé decided not to follow this time. There was no use... She was hopeless.

* * *

"Sora!" Riku called.

"Not listening!" Sora replied childishly.

"Sora..." Riku warned as he got closer.

"LALALALA! Can't hear you!" Sora was sitting on the terrace and looking out at the night sky as fireworks and music could be heard celebrating the New Year.

Riku sighed and sat down next to him, "Sora, I-"

"No," Sora interrupted, "If we're gonna talk... I'm gonna do the talking this time..." When Riku didn't keep talking, Sora took it as a sign to keep going, "I did what you said... I kissed her... No. _Actually..._ She kissed me! I asked her to, but she still did it! So... What the fuck!? Why does she keep doing this? Why is it that every time I try to get close to her, she pulls away? Does she just hate more or something? And if so, what kind of psychopath kisses someone that they hate? Is she trying to drive me insane?!"

Riku sat there quietly for a couple of seconds before speaking, "Permission to speak..?"

Sora rolled his eyes, "Granted..."

"She's afraid..." Riku said simply.

"What..?"

"She's afraid," Riku repeated casually.

"Afraid of what..?" Sora asked incredulously.

"I dunno... Maybe she's afraid that if she goes out with you, she'll get hurt. Or maybe she's afraid that you might make her look bad..."

"Hey!" Sora retorted.

Riku held up his hands in surrender, "Look. I'm just saying that the only conclusion I can see is that she's afraid of her feelings. She doesn't want to have these feelings for you, but it's pretty obvious that she does..."

Sora thought about this for a few seconds and sighed, "Okay... So, what should I do? Should I even bother at this point..?"

Riku shrugged, "That's really up to you, isn't it?" He paused for a moment, "Personally, the question you should be asking yourself is, 'Is she worth it..?'"

Sora didn't respond and Riku took that as a sign that the conversation was over. Sora would just have to figure things out on his own from here on out.

* * *

About a week later, winter break was over and it was back to the old grind. With no tests or homework to do, Sora and Kairi didn't meet on Monday like they usually did. They didn't really talk about it, they just both decided that they didn't need to go. Unfortunately, they couldn't avoid each other forever.

Wednesday came along and Sora and Kairi ran into each other between classes. Kairi continued walking, but Sora stopped her, "Kairi... We need to talk about this..."

Kairi sighed, "I need to get to class..." They were facing away from each other, heading in opposite directions, but both were stopped. A couple people looked at them curiously as they walked past, but most just ignored them.

"Fine. But can we meet after school today?"

"M-my stomach-"

"Shut up... We both know that's a lie..." Sora interrupted a little bitterly.

Kairi was shocked by his tone, but she understood, "I'm sorry..."

Sora sighed, "It's okay... Just meet me at the library after school, alright?"

Kairi nodded, "Yeah... Alright... I'll see ya then."

"See ya..." And they parted ways.

The rest of the day seemed to pass really slowly in anticipation of the event. Neither knew what to expect. Sora knew what he wanted to say, but he had no idea how Kairi would react, and contrariwise Kairi had no idea what Sora was going to say...

Sora made it to the library first. He sat down at the table that he and Adam had worked tirelessly at what seemed like so long ago. Adam saw him, but didn't saying anything. He could sense the tense air coming off the teen and decided it wasn't his place to interrupt whatever was about to happen.

When Kairi finally showed up, Sora didn't even look up. Kairi slowly and nervously made her way to the table and sat down across from Sora. Neither one said anything for a while, which made Kairi even more nervous. After what seemed like hours, she couldn't take it anymore and she spoke up, "Sora..?"

Sora's head snapped up as if he was just realizing her presence, "Oh... Hey, Kairi."

Kairi was confused, "Did you not know I was here?"

"I was a little lost in my thoughts, I guess..." Sora admitted.

Kairi nodded awkwardly, "So... You wanted to talk?"

Sora nodded, "Yeah..." He took a pause to collect his thoughts before continuing, "We need to talk about what happened on New Years." Sora couldn't help feel a sense of Déjà vu as he realized that he'd said almost the same thing after Homecoming. He cleared his throat and continued, "We kissed..."

Kairi nodded, "Yeah... We did..." A slight blush dusted her cheeks at the thought, but she said no more about it.

"Did you... Did you enjoy it..?" Sora asked tentatively.

Kairi's blush deepened, "W-what..?"

Sora blushed slightly as well, "You heard me..."

Kairi suddenly became very interested in her shoes, "Well... Uh... Kinda of... Yeah..." She admitted.

Sora nodded, "O-okay... Uh... Cool... Um... Next question," he cleared his throat again, "What does this mean for us?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well... Typically when two people do what we did. They talk about their feelings or their, uh... Relationship status... So..." Sora explained sheepishly.

"Oh..." Kairi couldn't keep the blush off her face now, so she just decided to accept it, "Well... I-I don't know..."

"Are you afraid..?" Sora asked suddenly.

Kairi looked right at Sora now. She'd been avoiding his gaze thus far, but the comment really drew her attention, "What?"

"Are you afraid... You know... Of your feelings?" Sora elaborated.

Was she afraid..? Was that why she was so reluctant. She wasn't sure. All she knew is that this conversation was making her really uncomfortable and she wanted to get out of it as soon as possible. "Look, Sora... I did enjoy the kiss... And maybe, I might have feelings for you... I don't know... But... I just can't be in a relationship... Not now... And maybe not for a long time..."

Sora's heart sank at the words. Part of him had expected them, but they hurt nonetheless. "Okay..."

Kairi sighed, "I'd understand if you don't want to talk to me anymore..." She hung her head sadly... Even if she couldn't date Sora, she still enjoyed hanging out with him.

"Well... Frankly I don't know how that's possible..." Kairi lifted her head to see Sora giving her a smile. It surprised her, but not as much as what he said next, "You're my tutor after all... I need your help."

Kairi wasn't sure what to say, "B-but-"

Sora shook his head, "Hey... I understand. I'm not gonna push you. If you don't want a relationship, I won't make you do anything... But I still need a tutor..." He smiled widely at her, "So... If you're still willing to teach me... I'm still willing to learn."

Kairi smiled back, "Of course..."

Sora stood and held out his hand formally, "So, we have a deal..?"

Kairi stood, too, and took his hand, "Deal..." Before he could pull away, however, she pulled him into a hug before muttering, "Thank you..."

Sora embraced the hug and whispered a "you're welcome" before they broke apart and Sora left the library.

Kairi stood there for a few moments. Sora really was a good guy... And maybe someday... They could work something out. Kairi was mindlessly looking around the room when she noticed something on the floor. It was Sora's book bag. She quickly scooped it up and ran out of the library before looking around to see where Sora went. She just barely caught sight of him disappearing around a corner. Only he was going further into the school instead heading towards the exit. This puzzled Kairi and she followed tentatively as she wondered where he was headed.

Sora rounded a couple of turns before he seemed to disappear altogether. Kairi hurried down the hall she'd seen him go into last and peeked into all the classrooms along it. He wasn't in any of them. But that's when she heard it: music. It was coming from a little door that was tucked into a nook of the hallway. She'd only gone to the school for a year, but she felt like she knew it pretty well. However, she can't recall ever having seen this door before.

She approached it carefully and leaned her ear against it to listen to what was going on inside. She heard a piano... And a voice. Not only that, it was Sora's voice. He was singing.

"But I'll kneel down,  
Wait for now.  
And I'll kneel down,  
Know my ground."

His voice was very gentle and rich sounding. Kairi became entranced by his words as he sang. And even more than that, she felt touched by the words themselves.

"And I will wait, I will wait for you.  
And I will wait, I will wait for you."

The piano cut out and she heard him sigh, "I'll wait..." he muttered, "Doesn't matter how long it takes... I'll wait for you, Kairi..."

* * *

**A/N: So, you guys might not like me too much right now... I know. I know... "They kissed!" "Why don't they just love each other!?" "You're writing is awful!" I got it... Just... Wait. Hear me out. Keep reading. Make sure to leave a review. And until next time... See ya!**


	15. Guys and Girls

**A/N: Hey, guys. I know it's been a few days, but like I mentioned previously, my updates are gonna be sporadic. I have lots of things I gotta do and sometimes I'm just too tired to actually write. It's not personal, I just get pretty exhausted. **

**I'd like to thank my reviewers and those that followed/favorited. I had quite a few this time and that made me really happy. We're at a total of 38 reviews which is officially more than my other story "Not So Simple". By the way, if you haven't read that one, please do. It's finished, but I would still appreciate some feedback. Be sure to leave a review on that one as well as this one. I have faith that we can hit 40 reviews and maybe even get a few more than that?**

**Anyways, this note is way too long, so let's just get into it, shall we? Enjoy!**

* * *

Sora left the secret place and was surprised to find his backpack leaning up against the wall outside. He must have left it there when he bent down to unlock the door or something... He checked the area to make sure no one was watching him before making his way to the front doors and out of the school.

He'd promised Riku and Roxas that he'd meet up with them and grab a bite. The girls were having a girl's night or something, so Riku and Roxas were girlfriendless for the night. Sora was okay with it though. Seeing as he was the only single guy in his group of friends (besides Wakka whom Sora didn't speak to very often), he didn't get to spend much time with his friends without feeling rather third-wheelish.

The Land of Dragons eventually came into view. It was a very high-quality Chinese Restaurant. What Sora really liked about it is that it was run by this woman who had to pretend to be a man just to get a job. Now she was in charge of the place and no man ever questioned her.

Sora walked into the restaurant and was greeted immediately, "Sora!"

Sora smiled at the source of the voice. He was a short dark-skinned man with a wispy mustache. His name was Mushu and he was always ready and willing to help you anyway he could. Sora had called upon him for favors in the past and was always happy to see the friendly man.

"Hey, Mushu," Sora responded as he approached the podium. "Are Riku and Roxas here yet?"

Mushu nodded. "They're at your usual table. Do you need me to direct you?"

Sora shook his head. "Nah. I know where to go. Thanks, Mushu!"

Sora walked to the back of the restaurant before stopping at a corner booth right next the window. There he found Roxas and Riku already chowing down on Lo Mein and Kung Pao Chicken.

"You guys couldn't wait for me..?" Sora joked.

"Yhh thk tuh leh..." Riku answered snidely.

"Pardon?" Sora asked with a raised eyebrow.

Riku swallowed his mouthful this time before responding. "You took too long... And Roxas kept complaining that he was hungry."

Roxas rolled his eyes while he finished his food. "Riku was complaining. I was perfectly fine with waiting."

"And yet you're eating just as well..." Sora pointed out.

Roxas shrugged. "You took too long."

Sora sighed before sitting down. He didn't even have to look at the menu to know what he wanted.

Soon enough a big, and I mean _big_, man came over to take their order. "What would you like, Sora?"

"Hey, Chien-Po. Just my usual," Sora responded politely.

Chien-Po pulled a notepad out of seemingly nowhere and started scribbling, "So, sweet and sour chicken hold the sweet and sour sauce, wonton soup with extra wontons and three egg rolls?"

"Four egg rolls, please. But yes."

The enormous man scampered away with surprising grace and Sora turned to his two best guy friends. Roxas and Sora hadn't been very close at the beginning of the year, but over the course of the last few months they'd gotten closer. Roxas and Riku had been on enough double dates by now that they considered each other good friends as well.

"So... Where are the girls again?" Sora posed.

Riku shrugged. "Dunno. Didn't ask."

"They're at the beach," Roxas answered.

Roxas and Sora looked at Riku curiously. Sora spoke first, "You didn't even bother to find out where your girlfriend was gonna be?"

Riku shrugged again and said, "Here's the way I see it: She has a life outside of me, right? What she decides to do with her time away from me is her own business. If she wants to tell me, that's great, but I'm not gonna pester her all the time or keep tabs on her or whatever. She's a big girl."

Neither of them bought it. "She yelled at you for being too clingy, didn't she?" Roxas asked.

Riku looked at the pair of them for a good few seconds before his expression fell, "Maybe..."

Roxas placed his hand on Riku's shoulder comfortingly. "It's alright, man. Xion's an independent kind of girl. You just gotta give her some space sometimes. Hell. That's why Xion and I never worked out..."

Riku and Sora's heads snapped in Roxas's direction. "You and Xion dated?"

Roxas seemed to realize what he'd said in that moment. He looked very nervous at Riku's question. "Uh... Yeah..?"

Riku's expression quickly changed to one of relief, "Dude... You have got to help me..."

Roxas quirked an eyebrow, "You're not mad?"

Riku chuckled, "Why would I be mad? Whatever happened between you and Xi is in the past... What I could really use now is more advice."

"Do we really have to do this right now..?" Sora groaned.

Riku smirked. "Aw... Is little Sora feeling left out because he doesn't have a girlfriend?"

Sora growled. "Only because you guys do all your coupley shit and I have to just tag along. This is first time in months I've been able to just hangout with you guys without any 'Babe, can you get me a soda?' or 'Honey, can we watch this movie?' or 'Hey! Wash my feet while I watch wrestling.'"

"That was one time!" Riku snapped as he slammed his hands on the table. Roxas was cackling with laughter.

Sora chuckled, but his expression quickly became serious again. "My point is that it's just weird for me is all." The other two's expressions changed as well. Only their expressions read as more bored than anything else.

"Why don't you just ask Kairi out then..." Roxas muttered. Riku snorted in amusement.

"I can't," Sora responded.

"And why not..?" Riku countered.

"Because she doesn't want to date me."

Roxas stepped in, "Dude, you're blind! She totally-"

"She said so herself..." Sora interrupted. Roxas got quiet.

Riku spoke up. "So, you talked to her..?" Sora nodded. "And she rejected you?"

Sora shook his head. "Not exactly... She basically said that she can't be in a relationship right now. Still, if I've learned anything from TV it's that when a girl says something like that, it means that she's just not into you."

No one said anything for a while. Then, Riku suddenly said, "Well, let's change her mind."

Sora raised an eyebrow and Roxas looked just as confused. "What do you mean?" Sora asked.

"Isn't Valentine's day in a few weeks..?"

* * *

Kairi had dropped Sora's bag and ran from the spot. She didn't know what to think. She knew that Sora might have feelings for her, but she had no idea that they were as intense as they were. If he'd been willing to wait for her... What did that mean for her..? Should she just turn him down? That was the most logical solution. It was the most likely to get him to move on, but... Is that what she wanted..?

Suddenly, Kairi felt like she was in one of those cheesy romantic comedies. The one where the girl refuses to fall for the guy, but then she realizes that she was in love with him the whole time. Her entire experience with Sora thus far had certainly felt that way... But she just couldn't. It wasn't a matter of falling for Sora... Not that she had. She hadn't. That would be ridiculous. She just couldn't date him. Or anyone for that matter.

So, she concluded that she would just have to tell him straight up that she wasn't interested. Kairi nodded to herself in assurance as she made her way to the beach where she would be meeting Xion and Naminé. Kairi had insisted on a girl's only day so she wouldn't have to put up with their coupley stuff.

She stopped by her house to change into her bathing suit and grab a towel before walking the rest of the way. It may have been January, but in the Destiny Islands, it was always swim weather. Kairi had learned to adapt to the warmer climate very quickly after moving from Radiant Garden. Kairi scanned the beach and found the other two girls sunbathing. She made her way over.

Naminé noticed her and sat up, "Hey!"

Kairi smiled, "Hiya! Have you guys been waiting long?"

Xion didn't lift her head, but answered, "Nah... You did take a little longer than expected though..."

Kairi blushed slightly, "Oh, sorry... Sora asked to talk to me after school."

Xion suddenly shot up and Naminé was looking almost hungrily at Kairi. "What. Happened." Naminé asked.

"N-nothing!" Kairi responded a little too quickly.

"Oh my god. Something happened..." Xion concluded.

"Nothing happened!" Kairi insisted.

"You're telling me the guy that you kissed at the New Years Party asked to talk to you _alone_ and nothing happened..?" Naminé asked with disbelief.

Kairi groaned. "Okay, so we talked, but that's it, I swear..."

Xion smirked. "And what did you talk about, Miss Kairi?"

Naminé patted the spot next to her encouragingly. "Yes. Do tell..."

So, Kairi laid out her towel before sitting and telling the story. She conveniently left out the part about Sora singing about her because she knew that the girls would absolutely freak out if they knew. After she finished her story the girls looked at her in disbelief.

Kairi shifted uncomfortably under their stares. "What?"

"You turned him down..?" Naminé asked.

Kairi shrugged. "Not exactly..."

"You told him that you didn't want a relationship right now. That's basically girl for 'Not interested'," Xion explained.

Kairi sighed. "Well, what was I supposed to do? I can't be in a relationship..."

"Why not?" Naminé whined.

"Because I don't have time, Nami..."

"That's a load of bullshit," Xion muttered.

Kairi growled. "It is _not_... I don't have time for a boyfriend. Anytime I'm not in school, I'm studying or hanging out with you guys... If I were to date Sora, then one of those two things would have to suffer."

"Then, let your grades slip," Xion suggested.

"That's not the one I was referring to..." Kairi responded.

"How rude!" Xion scoffed.

"My point is that even if I liked Sora and wanted to date him, it wouldn't be fair to him to call him my boyfriend and then spend no time with him..." Kairi explained sadly.

"But you _do _like him..?" Naminé questioned. Kairi pretended not to hear. "Kairi... Do. You. Like. Sora."

"Maybe..." Kairi admitted quietly.

Xion smirked. "Then, maybe you should let _him_ be the judge on what's fair..."

"What do you mean?" Kairi asked.

"Well, you say that you don't think it would be fair to him to be in a relationship in which you would not be able to spend much time together. Maybe he'd be okay with it..." Xion pointed out.

"But _I_ wouldn't... I couldn't do that to him... Or to myself for that matter. If I did decide to date Sora, I would want to spend time with him, but I just can't..."

The three of them sat in silence for a while when suddenly Xion's phone buzzed. It was from Riku. She was about to text back that she was busy, but then she saw the message. Kairi was too busy wallowing in self-pity to notice Xion show Naminé the message:

_The boys have a plan to change Kairi's mind about Sora. You in?_

Naminé and Xion looked at each other and nodded.

"Kairi. Everything's gonna be okay. I promise," Naminé reassured her best friend.

"How can you be so sure..?" Kairi asked in disbelief.

Naminé glanced at Xion who smirked. Kairi didn't pick up on this because she was still a little distracted by her own dilemma. She didn't even realize that her two friends were in the process of fixing it.

"Just a feeling," Naminé responded.

Xion hit the send button on her message:

_We're in._

* * *

**A/N: Bit of a shorter chapter, I know. And for such a long wait, too... You all must hate me... Ah, well... For those of you hoping for a little more RxX or RxN ****action. Sorry. This is a predominantly Sokai fic, but I will try and add a little more fluff for you guys soon. Hopefully, I can get the next chapter up in the next couple days. This was a bit of a filler chapter before the next one. Can you predict what's gonna happen? Let me know your thoughts in a review! Other shameless pleas for reviews! Yay, Reviews! Thanks for reading, guys. Until next time, See ya!**


	16. The Valentine

**A/N: You guys are awesome... You really are. So awesome that I decided to go ahead and post two days in a row. (PS If you enjoy quick updates, you should review. It makes me really happy). Thanks all those who followed/favorited and reviewed. We're at 41 now and I'm thinking that we can reach 45 with this update. That means that if the count is 44, somebody better write something... It could be "pancake" for all I care. Let's do it! **

**Seriously though. I wanna thank you guys so much for your support and feedback. It really does mean a lot to me. Now, enjoy this chapter... Or else.**

* * *

Things were really weird for Kairi lately. It started off with Sora. Without any warning he told her that he wouldn't be able to be tutored by her anymore. He looked really pained when he said it, too. Kairi felt awful, but she understood. It was crazy for her to have thought that he would want to talk to her after she basically turned him down.

Still, that wasn't the end of it. At least that made sense. Next thing she knew all of her friends were avoiding her. At first Kairi just thought that it was some weird coincidence that all of her friends happened to be busy anytime she tried to talk to them. They always had some kind of excuse like "I have to do homework", "I have to study" or something like that. Kairi tried to understand, but it was starting to feel like they just didn't want to see her anymore.

Soon enough her teachers started acting strangely. They never called on her to answer questions. Most of the other students seemed equally perplexed by this because that meant that _they_ had to start answering them. Kairi simply didn't understand, so after English one day she approached her English teacher, Mrs. Belle Paige. Kairi had always liked Belle. She was especially happy when Belle had married Adam. Kairi figured that if any one of her teachers would give her an explanation for this odd behavior, it was her.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Paige?"

"Yes, Kairi?" The older woman replied sweetly.

"All of my teachers have been acting strangely lately," Kairi began. "You see, they've avoided asking me any questions or calling on me when I offer to answer. In fact, you've been doing this, too. Is there a reason for it?"

Belle smiled sweetly and simply said, "Everyone deserves a break sometimes. This way, you're not the only one responsible for knowing the information. You'll just have to rely on others for once.

The words surprised Kairi. "What do you mean?"

"Well, at some point everyone has to learn how to cut themselves some slack. That's one of the most important lessons anyone can learn. Schoolwork and good grades are definitely important, but there are plenty of other important things. And your health and happiness is one of them. I would even say that it's more important than your schoolwork," she said nonchalantly.

Kairi walked away from that situation even more confused than before. So, all of her teachers had collectively decided that they would start taking it easy on her so that she would learn the value of relaxation..? That didn't make any sense! And why had they made that decision all of the sudden? Kairi decided not to worry about it though... After all there wasn't anything she could do about it. Besides... Things weren't that odd... Yet.

* * *

The final in the coffin came in early February when her parents paid a visit to her room. Kairi was absolutely shocked. She couldn't even remember the last time that both of her parents had been in her room.

"Hello, dear," her mother, Rinoa, greeted kindly. Kairi's mother was a beautiful woman with long brown hair, warm brown eyes and a slender face and figure. Kairi had always been jealous of her mother's natural beauty, but her mother had always assured her that she was beautiful, too. Kairi still had trouble believing it.

Kairi looked at each of them in turn. "Hi, Mom... Hi, Dad... What's going on?"

"Oh, nothing, honey. We just haven't talked as a family in a long time, don't you think?" Her mother continued sweetly. Kairi didn't like where this was going. Rinoa was a lawyer like Leon, but she had a different style. Whereas Leon tried to intimidate his victims into submission, Rinoa overpowered them with pure kindness.

Kairi gave them both a suspicious look. "Don't you guys have work?"

Leon shrugged. "We took the day off. Is that so odd?"

"Yes," Kairi answered immediately.

Rinoa chuckled. "Honey. We haven't been able to have an actual conversation since I can't even remember when. We just want to see how you're doing."

"How I'm doing..?" Kairi asked in disbelief.

"Of course," Rinoa confirmed with that same sweet smile. "How are you? How's school going?"

Kairi was very hesitant. It was true that they hadn't spoken in a while and that could be the reason why her parents wished to talk to her, but that hadn't bothered them until now. Then again, with all the other strange things that were happening to her recently, Kairi couldn't help but figure that one more thing to add to the list wouldn't be out of the question.

"I'm fine..." Kairi answered finally. "School is good. I've got all 'A's and-"

"Never mind grades!" Rinoa dismissed. "What about your friends? Or boys..?" Leon cleared his throat loudly and Rinoa rolled her eyes. "Oh, hush you... She's allowed to be interested in boys. Right, Kairi?"

"Uh..." Kairi was starting to get very uncomfortable.

"Oh, come on, sweetie. It's okay. You can tell us..." She glanced at her husband before adding in a hushed tone, "Or just me if you'd prefer..."

Kairi looked at her shoes, "There's nothing to tell..." She sighed sadly. "No boys..."

"Well, that doesn't sound like nothing..." Rinoa observed.

"Is it that same boy from before..?" Leon added. The last time Kairi and Leon had talked about Sora, he'd essentially told her to stop talking to him. This conversation was getting more and more uncomfortable by the second.

"So there _is _a boy?" Rinoa asked excitedly.

"No," Kairi answered a little sharply.

Both of her parents looked at her with concern. It was a strange sight. Her father's face in particular looked odd, so soft with sympathy.

"Kairi..." Leon began with a sigh. "Do you want to know the real reason why we're here?"

"Squall!" Rinoa cried in defiance.

Leon held up his hand, "I'm not going to lie to her, Rinoa..." He looked at Kairi again, "The reason we're here is because we were asked to be. We were told that you were confused about something and desperately needed our help. We figured it was important, but you were too afraid to ask us yourself."

"Who told you that?" Kairi asked. Did her friends tell her parents what was going on..?

"That's not important," Leon dismissed. "What is important is that you know this: Your mother and I love you. Very much. And we always will." Rinoa nodded. Leon smiled and added, "No matter what you decide to do."

Rinoa gave Kairi a hug and Leon rubbed her back comfortingly before they left the room. Kairi was comforted by the words, but she couldn't help but still be confused. After a good ten minutes of trying to make sense of everything that had happened to her in the past few weeks she came to a very simple conclusion:

"I don't have a clue what's going on..."

* * *

A couple of days later, Kairi's internal frustration was increased exponentially for one reason: Valentine's Day. Yes. The dreaded day had arrived and Kairi had to walk the halls of the school and watch as everyone paired off and laughed and held hands. It may have just been her imagination, but she could swear that "All by Myself" by Eric Carmen was playing in the background. By the time school ended, she was completely miserable.

The only good thing about the fact that none of her friends were talking to her was that none of them could shove their coupley stuff in her face.

"Hey! Kairi!"

Goddammit...

Kairi forced a smile onto her face as Selphie drew near. Her arm was looped with some random guy that Kairi hadn't really met before. He was pretty tall being around six feet tall. He had long, chestnut brown hair that was tied back in a pony tail and covered by a black cowboy hat. He had blue eyes and a mischievous smirk that unsettled Kairi a bit.

"Hey, Selph... Who's this?"

"Oh. This is Irvine..." She giggled. "He's my new boyfriend."

Kairi rolled her eyes. Selphie went through boyfriends like their were plastic, water bottles. Kairi smiled regardless and greeted Irvine. "Well, hello there, Irvine. Nice to meet you."

Irvine tipped his hat. "Nice to meet you, too." Kairi blushed slightly... Okay. So, maybe she could see what Selphie was interested in.

Kairi directed her attention back at Selphie. "So, is there any particular reason you wanted to talk to me..?"

Selphie looked deep in thought for a moment as if she was trying to remember something. "Oh, yeah! Uh... I need your help with something..." The last bit sounded rehearsed... Like it was a line or something.

Selphie didn't wait for an answer she just spun on her heel and she and Irvine began to walk away. "Let's go!" She called over her shoulder.

"Uh..." Kairi thought about it for a moment, but ultimately decided to follow. Someone was finally talking to her. She might as well see what they had to say.

Selphie led her to the library and stopped suddenly before turning back at Kairi with the same thoughtful expression, "I almost forgot... I have to go... But, hey, look! It's Xion! You should talk to her..." Selphie stood there for a few more seconds in thought before nodding to herself, smiling brightly and waving at Kairi. "Bye!" She then proceeded to walk off with Irvine. This left a very confused Kairi.

Kairi looked into the library to see that Xion was, in fact, sitting in there reading. This was weird because in the entire time Kairi had known Xion, she'd never expressed any interest in literature. Kairi got closer and saw what she was reading. "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien. That explained it.

"Hey, Xion," Kairi greeted hopefully. Maybe since Selphie had spoken to her, Xion would do the same.

Xion looked up and, surprisingly, she smiled. "Hey, Kairi. What brings you here?"

Kairi gestured towards where Selphie had gone and responded, "Uh... Selphie said she needed something... Then, she just kinda left... She was acting really strange, too." Kairi decided to ask the question that was on her mind. Why had they been avoiding her? "Hey, so-

"Actually," Xion interrupted. "Since you're here and Selphie no longer requires your assistance. I can use you."

Kairi wasn't about to just let it go. "Hold on, I-"

"Riku and I have been having some problems lately..."

Okay. Maybe she could postpone talking about it for a little bit. "What's wrong?" Kairi asked with concern.

"It's just that I've been super busy lately. It wasn't a big deal at first, but then I started to think about what you said..." Xion had a faraway look in her eye like she was really thinking. It was different than how Selphie looked though. And unlike Selphie, Xion spoke normally albeit a little sadly.

"What I said about what?" Kairi pressed.

"You know... How you can't date Sora because you would never have time for him... And maybe you're right... I can't do that to Riku..." Xion was looking at her feet.

"Hey..." Xion looked up. Her eyes were sad. Kairi gave a reassuring smile. "You'll figure this out. You and Riku are really good together. You shouldn't be kept apart for any reason..."

Xion didn't break her gaze, "Isn't that a little hypocritical..?"

Kairi lowered her gaze to her shoes, "Well... I mean... It's different with me and Sora. He and I may not even be compatible..."

Xion scoffed. "That's a joke, right? You guys work so well together that most people think you're already dating. And that's without any amount of PDA or other relationship junk."

Kairi wasn't sure what to say. Everything was so confusing lately. And she had to admit that not seeing Sora every week has made her really sad. Of course, she was also sad about not seeing her friends, but this was different.

Kairi shook the thoughts away and looked Xion in the eye. "We're not talking about me and Sora. I'm trying to help you and Riku..."

Xion looked a bit taken aback at Kairi turning the tables like that, but she rolled with it, "Well, how can I be confident in my relationship with Riku if you're not confident about you and Sora?"

"First of all, Sora and I aren't even dating. Second of all, Sora and Riku are completely different people. You and I are completely different people. The same rules don't apply," Kairi was starting to use her lawyer skills and Xion was obviously struggling to counter. She had no idea that Kairi could be so stubborn.

Finally, Xion sighed. "Okay fine..." She smiled at Kairi. "I'm gonna go make up with Riku right now..."

Kairi smiled back. "Good. I'm sure you guys will work it out."

"Can... Can you come with me..? You know... For support..?" Xion asked awkwardly.

Kairi nodded. "I would love to."

They left the library and Xion had to reluctantly leave her precious behind. They made their way down an unfamiliar set of hallways. Or rather, they were vaguely familiar, but Kairi couldn't quite place when else she had walked them. This was an area of the school that she didn't usually traverse. They found Riku leaning up against the wall. Kairi couldn't help but wonder how Xion had known exactly where to go to find him.

"You stay here. If I need you, I'll call you, but I want to talk to him alone. Okay?" Xion said. Kairi just nodded. She wasn't sure why she had gone if it was just to stand there, but she figured that if it made Xion more comfortable then she'd do it.

Kairi watched as Xion walked up and greeted Riku. She couldn't really hear what they were saying, but Riku was doing a lot of nodding. He looked at her a couple of times as Xion spoke, but aside from that he didn't seem to acknowledge her presence. At the end of it, the two of them hugged and walked over to where Kairi stood.

Riku smiled thankfully at Kairi. "Thanks for talking some sense into her..." His words sounded a little forced, but before Kairi could dwell on it much, Xion spoke up.

"Yeah. Thanks, Kairi. I really appreciate it." A look that Kairi couldn't decipher passed between the couple and they both left.

This left a question on Kairi's mind: Why were her friends acting so strangely? Between Selphie's weird tone of voice earlier and Riku and Xion acting weird, Kairi wasn't sure what was going on. Kairi thought about this for a while. It wasn't until too late that Kairi realized that she was standing in an unfamiliar set of halls with no recollection of how to get back. Luckily, it was at that moment that a set of hurried steps came hurtling towards her. Kairi looked in the direction that the sound was coming from and was surprised to see Naminé run around a nearby corner. Kairi was certainly surprised to see her. What were the odds that she would see all of her friends in one day? Especially after they had avoided her like the plague.

Upon seeing Kairi, Naminé rushed up to her and breathlessly said, "Please... Roxas is hurt... He needs help." Naminé had tears in her eyes and concern all over her face.

Kairi felt worry radiate off of Naminé and was immediately overcome by it herself. "How did he get hurt?"

"I'll explain later... I just need to get to the nurse's office and explain the situation. Can you go sit with him so that he's not alone. Please..?" It seemed odd that Naminé would ask Kairi to accompany Roxas instead of herself, but Naminé was so frantic looking that Kairi decided not to object.

"Okay. Sure. Where is he?" Kairi asked.

Naminé pointed down the direction she came from. "He's down that hallway. You'll be able to hear it."

"Hear what..?" Kairi asked cautiously.

Naminé shook her head. "No time." She started running in the opposite direction. "Just listen and you'll find your way!" Kairi was confused, but decided that she better get moving.

It was definitely odd though. After he got hurt, Naminé decided to leave her injured boyfriend alone instead of simply calling an ambulance or the school nurse on her phone. Then, instead of simply asking Kairi to go get the nurse, she decided to go herself. And finally the only advice she gave to find this injured boyfriend of hers was a very vague suggestion about listening. Kairi would have to think more about it later. If Roxas really was badly injured then there was no time to waste.

Kairi ran down the hall that Naminé indicated and listened for... something. She still couldn't shake the feeling that she'd been down this way before, but she wasn't sure when. That's when she heard it...

"I walked across an empty land.  
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand."

It was music. A familiar voice was singing.

"I felt the earth beneath my feet.  
Sat by the river and it made me complete."

Kairi did as Naminé said and followed the sound. It was the only thing she had to go off of after all.

"Oh simple thing where have you gone?  
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on."

Kairi began to remember why these halls had seemed familiar. She'd only walked them once before.

"So tell me when you're gonna let me in.  
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin."

The door was tucked away in a little nook. Only this time, it was open.

"And if you have a minute why don't we go  
Talk about it somewhere only we know?  
This could be the end of everything  
So why don't we go  
Somewhere only we know?"

Kairi walked up to the singer and smiled. She couldn't help it. He was ridiculous. But he was also wonderful. He was ridiculously wonderful and she just couldn't stand it anymore.

"Somewhere only we know?"

The song ended and the performer took his hands of the keys before looking at Kairi.

"Hey there," Sora said with a smile.

Kairi smiled right back. "Hi."

"What brings you here, Miss Kairi?" he asked casually.

"Oh. You know... Mending relationships, tracking down injured boyfriends... The usual..."

"Wow. Been keeping yourself busy, have you..?" Sora observed.

"I have," Kairi responded.

"Would you be willing to sit and have a chat with me..?" Sora asked hopefully.

"'No..." Kairi said and Sora's face fell.

"I..." he was speechless. He placed his face in his hands. "Dammit, Riku! You said this would work!" He was talking to himself and Kairi couldn't help it. She giggled. Sora looked up sadly, "Enjoying my misery..?"

"You didn't let me finish." Sora's face shifted again. Now, he looked very curious. "What I was going to say was... 'No... That won't be necessary.'"

Sora looked very confused. "What do you mean..?"

"Well, I've already made up my mind. Nothing you can say will change that..." Kairi said with a sense of finality in her voice.

Sora's expression fell again. He felt so stupid for thinking this stupid plan would work. Stupid. "I understand..." He said sadly.

Kairi looked at his sad expression and decided that he'd had enough. "Hey, Sora..?"

Sora lifted his gaze to meet Kairi's, but before he could respond he felt another pair of lips press against his own. To say the least he was shocked. Shocked because Kairi was kissing him. Shocked because he hadn't been expecting it at all. Shocked because of how amazing it was. They'd kissed before, but this was different. And so much better.

Sora felt his eyes close as he lost himself in the moment. He felt Kairi's arms wrap around his neck and his hands easily settled on her waist and held her to him. He deepened the kiss and was happy to hear a sigh of approval come from her. His hand made its way up to her hair and got tangled in her soft locks. He didn't want the moment to end and, fortunately, neither did she.

After an eternity she finally pulled away and Sora was reluctant to allow her to do so. Still, when he opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was her smiling back at him, he couldn't really complain. They just stood there for a while smiling stupidly at each other...

"So... What's gonna happen now..? Because last time you kissed me, you ran away from me and then told me that we couldn't be together..." Sora was half joking, half curious to see what she would say.

Kairi giggled. "Let's just say that I was wrong."

"Can I get that in writing?" Sora asked eagerly.

Kairi hit his chest playfully. "This one time... And only about the idea that I couldn't be in a relationship."

"That's the only one I really cared about anyway..." Sora smiled at her and she couldn't help herself. She kissed him again. He didn't complain. This kiss was much shorter than the last, but to the two it was still amazing. Kairi pulled away and smiled at Sora.

"Happy Valentine's Day."

* * *

**A/N: Yay! Super cheesy, I know... But screw it! We needed some fluffy stuff up in here... And clocking in at over three and a half thousand words. You guys are lucky that I love you. This was no easy feat. I'm not that good at writing love scenes. So... There. I also just realized that this is technically chapter 16. Sixteen is my lucky number, so why not, just for me, you guys post as many reviews as you can... I know I asked for 45 at the beginning of the chapter, but let's go beyond that. Do it!**

**Seriously though. Thanks again guys for your support. I'd say we got maybe four chapters and an epilogue left..? It's sad I know, but to quote the doctor of children's stories himself, "Don't be sad because it's over, be happy because it happened!" Until next time, See ya!**


	17. Short Days and Long Afternoons

**A/N: Hehe... So, funny story that completely explains my absence without any obvious plot holes or anything... You see, there were these ninjas- Alright. So, I'm a little later than usual. Between classes, sleep and trying to maintain a social life I've had no time to sit down and write. Well, I have but I was writing some other stuff. But that's not KH related so you probably don't care.**

**Anyways! I hate to say it but we might be doing weekly updates until the end. If that's a deal breaker for you, then I'm sorry. I'll try and post as frequently as possible, but I'd rather not completely overwhelm myself either. **

**I'd like to thank everyone who favorited/followed and I'd especially like to thank my reviewers, particularly the ones who took the pancake comment seriously. It was amusing... You guys are awesome. Is it too much to ask that we reach 50 reviews? Am I getting greedy?**

**Whatever. Enough of this long, boring Author's Note. On with the story! Enjoy!**

* * *

The sun was high in the sky and the leaves rustled on the trees as a cool "winter" wind passed over the park. The wind wasn't even remotely cold considering the island's climate, but it was cooler than usual so it was practically a winter wonderland. Roxas and Naminé sat at the foot of a tree with Roxas leaning directly against it, guitar in hand and Naminé leaning against Roxas with a sketchbook in her own.

Roxas was playing a soft, lilting melody that almost lulled Naminé to sleep. Her sketchbook lay forgotten in her arms, a picture of Roxas half finished on its pages.

"Hey, Roxas?" Naminé said gently.

"Yeah, Nami?"

"... Never mind..."

Roxas chuckled. "What is it?

Naminé paused for a few moments before saying, "I love you."

Roxas fumbled with his fingertips. He hadn't been expecting that at all. Especially not while she was half asleep. He was completely caught off guard, but at the same time incredibly happy.

Roxas smiled wide and said, "I love you, too."

He felt Naminé bury her head in the crook of his neck as she sighed contentedly. She didn't speak anymore and soon enough, Roxas felt her shallow breath on his neck. She was asleep. Roxas couldn't stop smiling. Hell. He couldn't even comprehend sleep right now. How could someone sleep when they felt like they were on top of the world? This girl. This beautiful, amazing girl loved him. She _loved_ him... Roxas nearly laughed out loud with delight. He couldn't imagine a more perfect moment.

It was at that moment that Naminé snored obnoxiously loud. This time Roxas did laugh. Not because of his delight, however. It's because Naminé, while small and gentle looking, snored with all the masculinity of a forty year old football coach. Naminé shifted in her sleep and Roxas calmed down.

She was so cute when she slept. If you ignored the snoring that is. Her hair fell haphazardly around her face and her mouth fell open just slightly allowing the ungodly sounds to come forth. Her arms were wrapped around her sketchbook like a teddy bear and Roxas couldn't help but wonder if she always slept with it in her arms.

Roxas set his guitar down. He was in no position to play it with this girl leaning on him like this. He didn't mind though. Not at all. He was content just to sit there with the most beautiful girl in the world lying in his arms.

* * *

They stayed like that for a while and Roxas must have dozed off for a while, too, because by the time they left, it was already nightfall. Roxas walked with his guitar case slung over his shoulder while Naminé attached herself to his other arm. She held her sketchbook in her other hand and the pair of them began the trek back home.

Roxas would insist on walking Naminé all the way to her doorstep even though it would be much easier if they parted ways down the road. She didn't really mind though. In fact, she thought it was adorable how he would be so protective and gentlemanly.

"Naminé... What made you decide to say it?" Roxas had been thinking about it for a while. As happy as saying "I love you" had made him, he couldn't help but wonder why she had decided that the moment was right. He'd been trying to get up the courage to say it for weeks, but he never found the right moment.

She shrugged into him and said, "I don't know. I guess I just felt like if I felt it, I should just say it. Even if the moment wasn't perfect, having you say it back to me is as perfect as I could have imagined it."

Roxas smiled at this. Leave it to her to not only read his mind, but also give the perfect answer. He loved this girl. He kissed her forehead lightly and whispered, "I love you."

Naminé smiled and replied, "I love you, too." Roxas was about to speak again when she continued, "But we are not going to be one of those couples who say 'I love you' to each other all the time... And we're definitely not gonna be the one's who go back in forth with the 'I love you more's and junk..." Roxas changed his mind about saying what he wanted to say.

"So, what do we do now?" Roxas asked absentmindedly.

"Well, I mean. Now that we said 'I love you' we've reached a new stage in our relationship. We can take that to mean we're ready for more intimate things or we can just leave things as they are and let whatever happens happen. Honestly, I don't know what I'm ready for, but I'm willing to take my chances with you."

Roxas looked confused. "Uh... I just meant, am I kissing you goodnight or did you want to watch a movie, or..."

Naminé's cheeks flushed. "Oh! Uh... I mean... If you want. We can, uh... Watch a movie."

Roxas felt her embarrassment. He chuckled softly, "Hey. It's okay. I'm glad that you think about that kind of stuff."

Naminé pouted slightly which Roxas thought was just adorable. "You don't think I'm crazy?"

Roxas smiled comfortingly. "Honey, I know you're crazy..." She smacked his arm playfully. "But I love you anyway because I'm crazy, too."

She smiled at this. "Okay, fine..." They reached Naminé's door. "So, what movie do you wanna watch?"

* * *

"Insidious... No... The Ring! No! PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 1, 2 AND 3!" Xion was going through her movie collection looking for a fun movie to watch with Riku. Meanwhile, he was sitting on the couch with a worried expression. The only movies she'd expressed any interest in were horrors and he wasn't particularly fond of horrors. It's not that he got scared. Which he didn't. Riku never got scared. Ever. He just... Didn't like them. So, lay off...

"What do you think, Riku? Should we just stick with a classic like Saw? Or something more exciting and fun like Woman in Black?" Xion was looking at Riku with excitement and suddenly all feelings of reluctance melted away. That look in her eyes would make it all worth it.

"Whatever you want, babe" Riku smiled at her adoringly.

She just rolled her eyes. "You're such a sap..." She laughed and then suddenly gasped and picked up a disc. "This one! This is perfect." She flashed the movie up so Riku could see. "Cabin in the Woods!"

Riku smiled and nodded. "Sure. Sounds great."

Xion squealed excitedly and ran to the DVD player. She put the disc in and ran back to the couch and snuggled into Riku. "This is gonna be great."

Riku stroked his hand through her hair and smiled down at her. "It sure i-" The movie started with a literal bang, "What the fucking hell?!"

Xion giggled. "Are you scared, Riku?"

"W-what? Of course not..." Xion shrugged and Riku forced a smile as the movie continued. This would be a long, long night...

* * *

By the time the movie was half over, Riku had thrown all sense of shame out the window and was hiding inside a makeshift pillow fort that he'd constructed. "Listen to the fucking potthead, dammit! What the hell is wrong with you people?!"

Xion was just standing with her arms crossed next to Riku's fortress of pillowtude. "Are you kidding me right now?"

Riku looked at his girlfriend innocently, "What..?"

Xion smiled and rolled her eyes. "Alright. Make some room. I'm coming in!"

The two of them squashed themselves in the tiny space and Xion comforted Riku anytime something scary happened. He was so cute when he was scared. Hell, that's why Xion had been set on picking a scary movie in the first place. She knew that deep down he was a softy. And she loved it.

* * *

"I just don't understand..." Riku whimpered.

"I know, baby... It's okay. We'll make it through this." Xion rubbed Riku's back soothingly as he rested his head on her chest.

The movie had finally ended and Riku was rather upset. "What kind of ending was that anyway? They didn't live happily ever after at all..."

"I know..." Xion cooed.

Riku sat there with a small pout on his face for a little before looking up at Xion hopefully. "Can we watch Finding Nemo now?"

Xion smiled and laughed. "Are you sure you can handle the scary bit at the beginning with the shark..?"

Riku narrowed her eyes at her. "Are you making fun of me?"

Xion shrugged. "Maaaybe."

Riku smirked challengingly. "Oh, bring it on! You know what? Put on Frozen! I'll watch the whole thing and I won't cry once! Not even at the end when Anna-"

"Shush, spoilers!" Xion held her hand up.

"Haven't you seen it?" Riku asked curiously.

"Yeah... But some of the readers might not have..."

"... What..?"

* * *

Sora and Kairi walked the vacant streets of Destiny Islands. It was near the end of the day and the sun looked as if it was just about to dip below the horizon. Most were either home for the evening or preparing to leave for some kind of night time adventure, whatever that means.

The young couple's hands were clasped together and they walked in comfortable silence. They'd spent the day together doing whatever came to mind. See a movie? They did it. Get dinner? They did it. Prevent the end of the universe by restoring light to the hearts of worlds scattered across many Disney like settings? They didn't do that... That would be weird. And awesome.

"So, where are we going now?" Kairi asked nonchalantly.

Sora smiled at his girlfriend. "It's a surprise."

Kairi raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"It is, indeed." Sora smirked. "So, I'm gonna need you to close your eyes."

Kairi scoffed and asked, "Why in the world would I do that?"

"Please..?" Sora pouted.

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Fine..." She did as she was told and closed her eyes. "But you better not lead me right up to the water and push me in again."

She heard him laugh. "But that was hilarious!"

Kairi's eyes snapped open. "Sora!"

Sora chuckled. "I'm just kidding. Now, close them and I'll lead you there."

Kairi reluctantly closed her eyes again and allowed her boyfriend to lead her to this new mystery location. They walked for a while and Kairi had absolutely no sense of where they might be. Eventually, she felt herself walking up some kind of incline. It flattened out into what Kairi assumed was the crest of a hill and Sora's fingers slipped away from her own.

"Sora..?" She asked fearfully.

"You're okay..." She instantly calmed at the sound of his voice. Sora just had a way of making her feel relaxed. "Open your eyes..."

Kairi did so and she found herself looking at the open sky. She was standing on a hill overlooking the ocean. Sora was standing next to her and smiling. Kairi was absolutely speechless. The sky was filled with color.

"Sora... This is..."

"Beautiful," Sora finished for her. But he wasn't looking at the sky.

Kairi blushed as she felt Sora's eyes on her. "You're so lame..."

"Yeah. But you love it." Sora laughed.

Kairi looked at her boyfriend and smiled. "Thank you for bringing me here."

Sora smiled back. "Just wait."

He walked a few steps back and climbed up on a tree. It was bent really strangely so that it grew almost horizontally. This horizontal potion was the part that Sora was sitting on now as he held out his hand for Kairi to take.

She did and he pulled her up so that she was sitting next to him. He didn't release her hand and she scooted over so that she was sitting flush against Sora. She leaned her head on his shoulder and they watched as the sun set.

It was just like the dance all those months ago. Only now, Kairi wasn't afraid. She wasn't afraid of getting caught. She wasn't afraid of falling for Sora. She wasn't afraid of her future. Because she knew that as long as she was with Sora, she was safe.

"Sora..?" Kairi said gently.

"Yeah?"

"Don't ever change."

Sora was a little confused, but he smiled. "I won't. I promise."

* * *

**A/N: Ugh... I started this chapter on Tuesday... Tuesday! I'm so sorry, guys... But I do have a reason for this delay. And while you may not appreciate it and you may think that I'm just an irresponsible jerk. Let me explain. **

**Something happened recently that I was in no way expecting. I asked a girl out... Gasp! I know, right? It's freaking weird... You know what's even weirder..? She said yes! I mean, Jeez... How crazy can you get? Anyway. The very limited amount of time I had to write before because college just got even more limited because girlfriend. **

**I promise I'm not gonna abandon you guys though. I'm gonna try to update as frequently as possible. I'll just have to find time to write between class, homework, rehearsal, practice, work, sleep, relaxation and hanging out with the SO. Should be easy, right..? Sigh...**

**Leave a review, please... I know this was a shorter, mostly fluff chapter that took way to long to update, but the feedback is always important. I was very happy to see the amount of reviews last time. This time I challenge you guys to use the word "Aardvark" in your reviews. And make it make sense within the context of the review! If not... Well... That's okay, I guess... I just thought it'd be fun. Until next time, See ya!**


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